By Sola Ogundipe
Despite huge technological, scientific and industrial advances, an estimated 108 million Nigerians still lack access to toilets, the United Nations stated on this year’s World Toilet Day, November 19, with the theme “Wastewater”.

LACK OF TOILETS: Typical toilet facilities in Agboyi – Ketu Community in Lagos….many homes and schools in Nigeria still lack safe, private toilets and hand-washing facilities.

Currently available data show that 67 percent do not have a decent toilet, 33 percent lack clean water, and 26 percent practice open defecation.

According to WaterAid, Nigeria will only be able to deliver a community source of clean water within a 30-minute round trip to everyone by 2039.

At current rates of progress, it is estimated that Nigeria will never reach the point where everyone has basic sanitation services.

The UN also notes that women and girls who meet their toilet needs out in the open sometimes become vulnerable to rape and other forms of sexual violence.

India, with approximately 818 million people without toilet access, leads the list of countries where people have no toilets in their homes, followed by China with 607 million, Indonesia 109 million and Pakistan 98 million

According to World Health Organization (WHO) data,, 2.4 billion people are living without a toilet worldwide while 10 percent of people meet their toilet needs out of doors.

Only 39 percent of the world’s population use a toilet that is connected with safe sewage system. Also, it is believed that 10 percent of the world’s population consumes food that has been smeared with waste water.

According to Amnesty International, millions of women and girls must walk at least 300 metres from their homes to find a suitable place to satisfy their toilet need.

By 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 6, aim to reach everyone with sanitation, and halve the proportion of untreated waste water and increasing recycling and safe reuse.