A survey carried out by the Federal Ministry of Water Resource, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and other international bodies, in 2022, revealed that about 48 million Nigerians still practice open defecation.
Nigeria has the second-highest global rate of open defecation with Ebonyi accounting for a significant portion.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines open defecation as the practice of defecating in fields, forests, bushes, bodies of water, or other open spaces. This act can pose a risk to human health increasing the chances for the contamination of diseases through air, water and the environment.
According to the report, the states with the highest open defecation rate are Ebonyi (73 per cent), Plateau (56 per cent), Kogi (56 per cent), Oyo (54 per cent), and Kwara (50 per cent).
However, despite these, findings by The ICIR from the state budget revealed that the state is unprepared to combat this crisis. Assessment of the budget showed that only N285 million, representing 0.13 per cent of the total N202.13 billion budget, was allocated to address the ill practice in the state.
On the state profile, while Eboyin ranks above average (60 per cent) on access to basic water supply service, it has the highest prevalence of open defecation cases. It is also the second state, next to Edo, without access to hygienic services.
This means that people living in states like Rivers, Delta and Lagos are 20 times more likely to have access to basic hygiene services than people in Ebonyi and Edo states.