BY GABRIEL OLAWALE

SIX Nigerian states covering 28,000 communities are set to become free of open defecation activities by end of 2018. This is the expectation as the states, Katsina, Bauchi, Benue, Jigawa, Kaduna and Zamfara embark on “Sanitation, Hygiene and Water in Nigeria, SHAWN” project – Phase2 on the National Environmental Sanitation Day.

At a national sensitisation meeting held by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources in collaboration with UNICEF in Abuja, Commissioners of State Water Resources and other state Ministries vowed to adopt and make one Local Government Area each in their states open defecation free by March 2015.   SHAWN-II, to be funded significantly by UKAid, Government and UNICEF intends to reach seven million people with access to basic sanitation, water supply and hygiene awareness in the six states by November 2018.

With the theme “My environment, my health” the SHAWN-II project focuses to empower communities to eliminate open defecation, promote sanitation and community health.

A total of N420 million is to be allocated as part of the initial counterpart contribution towards realising the project goals by maximising impact of Water, Sanitation & Hygiene interventions and linking with sectoral interventions of health, nutrition, and education.  ‘The SHAWN-II project presents Nigeria an enormous opportunity towards realizing Nigeria’s goal of an Open Defecation Free Nigeria by 2025 as declared by the Minister of Water Resources. The main target is under-5 children, according to Jean Gough, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria.