HealthNewsNigeriaUnited NationsNigeria has been named as the official host of the 2022 World Toilet Summit

The announcement was made by Jack Sim, the founder of the World Toilet Organisation (WTO), during a virtual meeting of Water Sanitation and Hygiene Stakeholders and Development Partners on Wednesday.

Sim noted that the United Nations member countries in 2013, unanimously adopted November 19 as the day to create awareness on access to toilets.

According to him, the summit would be a great opportunity for its members to come to Nigeria, to seek out ways to address its sanitation challenges, emphasizing that Nigeria’s selection was an opportunity to showcase the extensive efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria and also to drive the intended change.

Speaking on the development, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, said the selection of Nigeria as the host country for the 2022 World Toilet Summit was a welcome development.

The Minister recalled that Nigeria launched the ‘Open defecation free’ (ODF) Campaign was in November 2019, which was aimed at mobilising high level political support, resources and the entire populace towards building a new culture of safe sanitation.

Against this background, he stressed that the choice of Nigeria to host the Summit was coming at a period when Nigeria had made concrete plans to exit from the comity of nations practising open defecation.

He further acknowledged that Nigeria needs all necessary support to ensure that the ODF Campaign gains traction with all stakeholders playing their part.

“I am optimistic that the World Toilet Summit will provide a veritable platform for the mobilisation of the Private Sector and other critical stakeholders in addressing the challenge of Open Defecation in the country,’’ he said.

The World Toilet Organisation is a global non-profit organisation committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide. It was founded in 2001 with 15 members and has now grown to 151 member organizations in 53 countries.