Buhari’s minister calls attention to poor sanitation facilities in IDP camps. The absence of upgraded sanitary facilities in several Nigerian cities has been brought up by Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development. She was concerned that despite sanitary services, up to 47 million Nigerians continued to practice open defecation, contaminating the environment.
The minister said that many studies have ranked Nigeria as the nation with the highest prevalence of open defecation.
Farouk emphasized that due to a lack of facilities for hygienically separating waste from human touch, 120 million Nigerians are compelled to live with their trash.
The minister, who was present at the occasion in Bakassi, Cross River State, through the ministry’s Director of Social Development, Mr. Taiwo Ademola Bashorun, spoke
She demanded that the IDPs have clean restrooms and sanitary living conditions since she believed they deserved to be healthy as well.
In order to prevent infections linked to open defecation from spreading to the camp, she recommended IDPs to avoid doing so.
“One in four Nigerians, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), urinate in public. Because they lack access to sufficient restroom facilities, this has produced a potential breeding ground for deadly illnesses including cholera, hepatitis, and the wild poliovirus, according to the ministry.
In a separate speech on effective hygiene, the Supervisor of the Environment, Nkoyo Effiong, warned the IDPs to avoid dropping baby wipes in public areas since they might cause an eye sore and perhaps spread illness. Instead, they should try to dump them in restrooms.
