The Nasarawa State Government has unveiled mobile toilets for deployment in schools and public spaces as part of efforts to eliminate open defecation across the state’s 13 local government areas.
Commissioner for Environment, Solid Minerals and Mining, Margaret Elayo, announced the initiative on Thursday during a media briefing ahead of World Toilet Day on November 19, 2026.
Elayo said the government would adopt a zero-tolerance approach to open defecation, describing the practice as a public health emergency that threatens the wellbeing of residents.
She said the mobile toilets would be deployed to locations with sanitation challenges, including schools, with particular attention to the needs of female students.
“I don’t want any girl child to be exposed to the public because there are no good toilets, and that is why I came up with this concept,” the commissioner said.
She added that the initiative would be extended to public places as the state government intensifies efforts to improve access to safe sanitation.
Elayo said the administration of Governor Abdullahi Sule was working with local governments, traditional rulers and community leaders to encourage communities to end open defecation.
She also called for the construction and maintenance of clean public toilets in markets, motor parks, schools and health centres, with facilities designed to accommodate women, children and persons with disabilities.
The commissioner urged community leaders to enforce sanitation rules in their areas and encouraged schools and teachers to promote hygiene education and proper toilet maintenance.
She warned that the absence of adequate sanitation facilities exposed residents to preventable diseases, including cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), more than 100,000 children under five die annually from diarrhoea in Nigeria, with about 90 per cent of the deaths directly attributable to unsafe water and sanitation.
UNICEF also estimates that one in four Nigerian children under five experiences severe stunting, while one in 10 suffers from wasting, conditions associated with repeated diarrhoea and other water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases.
Elayo said improving access to toilets was essential to protecting public health, preserving dignity and ensuring that children, particularly girls, could attend school without facing inadequate sanitation facilities.
The government’s mobile toilet initiative is expected to complement its wider efforts to improve sanitation and progressively make communities across Nasarawa open-defecation-free.
