Open defecation, according to Wikipedia, is the human practice of defecating outside (in the open environment) rather than into a toilet. In carrying out this practice, people may make use of fields, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals, and perhaps, worse still, rivers, streams or other water sources.

Nigeria is among the nations in the world with the highest number of people practicing Open Defecation, estimated at over 46 million people. The practice has had negative effect on the populace, especially children, in the areas of health and education and had contributed to the country’s failure to meet the MDG target.

The government has tried several strategies to address this problem. In 2008 it adopted an intervention called “Community Led Total Sanitation”. This is a community level intervention aimed at reducing open defecation and improving toilet coverage. It draws in community leaders and ordinary residents so they can understand the risks associated with open defecation. By 2014 the intervention was deployed in all 36 Nigerian states, covering around 16% of the country’s 123,000 communities,

More often than not, people engage in open defecation either because they do not have a toilet readily accessible or due to traditional cultural practices, interestingly, this practice is not limited to inhabitants of rural, underdeveloped areas alone.

Several communities are living with many risk of open defecation, like water borne diseases, preventable deaths, and hamper education and economic growth, and also infringes on people’s privacy and dignity. How can we best curb this issue to ensure a better living for citizens?

These will serve the bases of our discussion on this edition of village square