Date: 2019-12-01

Kwara State government has launched prototypes of Integrated Modern Public Toilet in Ilorin, the state capital.

The governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, said the move is in consonance with the global consensus that open defecation must be ended by 2025. Currently, Nigeria occupies a regrettable position at the top of the list of countries with high incidence of open defecation. The North Central zone, where Kwara is, is today the epicentre of open defecation in Nigeria.

With this disturbing records in mind, AbdulRazaq last August 2019 gave an approval for the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to build Integrated Modern Public Toilets in deserving areas of Ilorin metropolis.

According to the Convener Kwara Youth Centre, Kayode Oyin-Zubair, a community of young professionals that partnered the ministry of environment to build three prototypes, the foresight of the governor will help in meeting the 2025 target.

"Governor AbdulRazaq has promised that before his government will begin any enforcement at stamping out open defecation, he would have provided befitting and standard toilet facilities in strategic places in the state. Water and sanitation are central to healthy living. We can only have hygienic environment when human and other forms of waste are properly disposed," he said.

The prototypes are built to be self-sustaining with their own source of energy serviced by underground water. There are bath and toilet wares on both male and female wings making a total of 10 rooms in each facility. Shops are built at the front and on the sides, to generate revenue for the maintenance of the facility.