April 23, 2021

The percentage of Nigeria’s population with access to basic water supply services has steadily increased from 67% in 2015 to 68% in 2018, and 70% in 2019.

In terms of population figures, these changes equate to about 9 million more people gaining access to basic water supply services between 2018 and 2019.

This is according to the Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, National Outcome Routine Mapping (2019 WASH-NORM survey) report presented by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources at the 115th National Executive Council, NEC meeting on Thursday.

The report States that only 14 per cent of Nigeria’s population have access to safely managed drinking water supply services, which means that up to 171 million Nigerians are still off the SDG target.

“On access to sanitation, indicators across the country show a slight improvement as 44% of the population were found to have access to basic sanitation services in 2019 compared to 42% in 2018”.

“Only 17% of the population use improved sanitation facilities that have proper handwashing facilities with soap”.

“The number of people practicing open defecation marginally changed from 24% in 2018 to 23% in 2019 meaning that about 46 million people are still defecating in the open”.

“About 27% of markets and motor parks have access to basic water supply services. Accessibility of persons living with disabilities is very low at 17%. About a quarter of markets and motor parks (24%) have access to basic sanitation services and slightly more than half (53%) of markets and motor parks do not have toilets for public use”.

“28 out of 36 States plus FCT have urban water utilities out of which only 16 are functional and producing water for the people. The functional 16 State Water Agencies (SWA) have a total number of 1,171 water works which 41% is operational”.

NEC noted that the Ministry has commenced the third round of WASH-NORM Survey for 2021, urging all States and FCT to support the process.