Nigeria: Federal govt says building public toilets is responsibility of local govt

The Federal government of Nigeria has made it clear that building public toilets is the sole responsibility of local governments, according to a news report by Vanguard.

The statement was made by the representative of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Director of Water Quality Control and Sanitation, Emmanuel Awe, at the recent African Sanitation Policy Guidelines (ASPG), Country Stakeholder Consultation Meeting, held in Abuja.

Awe said that building toilets in public places like markets, schools, and primary health care centers is a constitutional responsibility of the local government but households and other privately owned property including schools and malls should be provided with toilets by their owners.

"Federal Government does not have communities, but all these communities are in the States and local governments. For building toilets in public places the federal government can only intervene, the responsibility of building toilets solely lies with the local governments," said Awe.

"All we are doing is to intervene and demonstrate that it is doable, and the states are to ensure that all their local governments are empowered enough to build public toilets, build toilets in their schools, primary health centers, and it is not our responsibility to build toilets," he added.

Awe said that 47 million Nigerians are practicing Open Defecation, and it gives the government serious concern about it, but efforts are made to eradicate the practice by 2025.

The minister also said that the government is encouraged by the fact that India has removed 550 million people from Open Defecation within five years. So it is possible for Nigeria to remove 47 million people from open defecation within the next five years.