Nigeria is the third country in the world and the worst in Sub-Saharan Africa where most urban dwellers live without a safe private toilet, the latest report on State of the World Toilets for 2016 has said.

According to the report by WaterAid, a renowned international organization that focuses on improving access to safe water and sanitation in towns and villages, 58 million people in Nigeria out of the 700 million urban dwellers around the world live without basic sanitation.

It said: “The problem is so big that 13.5 million people living in Nigeria’s towns and cities have no choice but to defecate in the open using roadsides, railway tracks and even plastic bags dubbed ‘flying toilets’. Nigeria also ranks top in the countries falling furthest behind in reaching people with urban sanitation.

“For every urban dweller reached with sanitation since 2000, two were added to the number living without, an increase of 31 million people in the last 15 years.”

The Country Representative of the agency, Dr. Michael Ojo, noted that adequate sanitation could create jobs and prosperity directly and indirectly, adding that there exists a potential market of more than $2.6bn in sanitation.

Ojo stated that by increasing access to sanitation through stimulating needs via sanitation marketing and responding to existing unmet needs, untapped business opportunities would open up.

“WaterAid’s State of the World Toilet 2016 report also focuses on some of the jobs that are created when the challenge is addressed head-on,” Ojo said.

The report further noted that an investment in improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene was probably the most effective investment Nigeria could make to grow its economy and better the lives of its people.

On other findings, the report stated that India ranked top for having the greatest number of urban dwellers living without safe private toilet and put the number of persons in this category at 157 million.

“It is also a world leader in having the most urban dwellers practicing open defecation – 41 million,” the report noted.

It said war-ravaged South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, is the worst country in the world for urban sanitation by percentage, adding that 84 per cent of dwellers in its urban centres had no access to a toilet and every other urban-resident practiced open defecation.

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Nigeria, third in world with poor sanitation access – Report