Jack Sim, the Founder of the World Toilet Organization, has officially announced the selection of Nigeria to host the year 2022 World Toilet Summit, coming up in November 2022.
He announced this at a virtual meeting of Water Sanitation and Hygiene Stakeholders and Development Partners held via Zoom.
Mr. Sim said November 19th was unanimously adopted by the United Nations member countries in 2013, and this Summit will be a great opportunity for members to come to Nigeria, which he described as one of the great countries in the world, to address its sanitation challenge.
Also speaking, Mrs. Caterina De Albuquerque, Chief Executive Officer, Sanitation and Water for All (SWA), pointed out that sanitation was at one time not discussed and completely forgotten about in most countries of the world.
She applauded the leadership of Nigeria, for prioritizing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene WASH, stressing that Nigeria’s example will inspire other African Countries to follow the suit.
Dr. Nicholas Igwe, National Coordinator of Organized Private Sector in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (OPWASH) in his welcome remarks noted that the choice of Nigeria as the host country for the Summit is a clear endorsement of the commitment and political will of the Federal Government towards Water, Sanitation and Hygiene delivery in Nigeria.
In his remark, the Minister of Water Resources, Engr Suleiman H. Adamu, stressed that the choice of Nigeria to host the Summit is coming at a period when Nigeria has made concrete plans to exit from the comity of nations practising open defecation ODF.
He acknowledged that Nigeria needs all necessary support to ensure that the ODF Campaign gains attraction with all stakeholders playing their part, expressing optimism that the Summit will provide a veritable platform for the mobilization of Private Sector and other critical stakeholders in addressing the challenge of Open Defecation in the country.
Private Sector and Development partners present at the meeting were World Bank, UNICEF. Reckitt, Coca-Cola, Tolaram Group, FMDQ and Guinness Nigeria, jointly commended the initiative and pledged their support to host a successful summit.
