By Bashir Bello

KATSINA—Chief, Water and Sanitation Section, United Nations Children’s Fund, UNCIEF, Nigeria, Zaid Jurji, has said Nigeria can no longer withstand open defecation’s practice because of its effects on people’s health.

Jurji stated this when he led a delegation of UNICEF on a visit to Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State at the Muhammadu Buhari Government House in Katsina.

The UNICEF chief pointed out that Nigeria ranked third in the world in open defecation.

Reacting, Governor Masari said his govern-ment has constructed six compartments of VIP latrines in 110 primary schools, renovated 335 primary schools in 20 councils and also provided 118 facilities in various schools through SUBEB.

Earlier, the UNICEF Chief of Katsina Field Office, Padmavathi Yedla, said in India, it adopted the pay-and-use latrine system.

He called for a similar arrangement in the state to check issues of open defecation.