The Federal Capital Territory Water Board has said that about 50 per cent of primary and secondary schools in the country need to be provided with toilet facilities in order to tackle the open defecation menace.
The board noted that Ekiti, Plateau, Oyo, Nasarawa and Cross River States are endemic in the open defecation practice, putting children at risk of diarrhoea and other diseases.
The FCT board added that the toilets’ provision was necessary as around 87,000 children below five die in Nigeria annually from diarrhoea.
The board Head of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, Mohammed Dan-Hassan stated these at a lecture organised by the Nigerian Institution of Water Engineers.
The lecture was to mark the inauguration of its fifth National Chairman, Abolade Lawal.
Dan-Hassan said, “A healthy child does well in learning than a sick child. Stunted children are admitted late and are less intelligent.
