Nigeria has the world’s highest number of people practicing open defecation — around 46-48 million people, roughly a fifth of the population, who don’t have access to a toilet and instead use bushes, gutters, rivers, and other open spaces.
The consequences are severe: UNICEF says more than 100,000 children under 5 die every year in Nigeria from diarrhea, with 90% of those deaths linked to unsafe water and sanitation. In Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, there’s roughly one public toilet for every 14,000 residents.
The Nigerian government first pledged to end open defecation by 2025 — that deadline has already passed, and the new target is 2030, which many public health experts doubt is achievable without a major funding increase. UNICEF estimates the country needs around 10 million new toilets to hit that goal.
In this video: how the crisis got this bad, its devastating impact on children’s health, and the entrepreneurs building a growing "toilet economy" to try to solve it.
🚽 In this video:
The scale of Nigeria’s sanitation crisis
Why previous government deadlines have failed
The child health impact of open defecation
How local entrepreneurs are building toilet businesses to fill the gap
#Nigeria #GlobalHealth #Sanitation #PublicHealth #Africa #UNICEF
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