THE seventh edition of the public presentation of the “State of the Nigerian Environment (STONE)” has revealed the cleanest states of the federation.
The report, with the theme: Stone 2024 Unplugged, scored Akwa Ibom (Southsouth), Enugu (Southeast), Lagos (Southwest), Plateau (Northcentral), Borno (Northeast), and Kaduna (Northwest) as the cleanest states in Nigeria.
Cleanup Nigeria’s National Coordinator Ene Baba Owoh, announced the states at an event the group organised in Abuja.
Owoh said Cleanup Nigeria’s study showed that 179 million people across Nigeria live in unclean environment.
“Comparing this to 183 million in 2023, life expectancy in Nigeria fell from 44 years in 2023 to 40 years in 2024. These six zonal cleanliness champions were awarded the prestigious STONE Green Crystal Award in 2024. The organisation aims to highlight the importance of environmental cleanliness and sustainability in Nigeria, recognising the efforts of the six zonal cleanliness champions and encouraging others to follow suit.
“Nigeria’s sanitation situation is a mixed bag. On one hand, the country has seen a slight improvement in reducing open defecation, from 24 per cent in 2023 to 20 per cent in 2024. This progress has pushed Nigeria from the top spot in open defecation worldwide to the second position, with India taking the lead. However, there are still significant challenges.
“Twenty-eight out of 37 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) outside Abuja, are rated as unclean. This is a slight increase from 31 states in 2023. In terms of waste management, only four states – Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Abia, along with Lagos – showed a four per cent improvement in procurement of waste management equipment in 2024,” he said.
The national coordinator noted that funding for sanitation initiatives had decreased while the health of sanitation workers had deteriorated with a drop from 31 per cent in 2023 to 28 per cent in 2024.
On a more positive note, nine states – Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Lagos, Kaduna, Plateau, Enugu, Cross River, Anambra, and Bauchi – scored above 40 per cent in overall performance ratings and can be considered clean.
According to him, while there are some encouraging signs, Nigeria still faces significant challenges in improving its sanitation situation with only seven states demonstrating good personal hygiene and sanitation practices among their citizens.
In the area of environmental cleanliness, nine states out of 37, including the FCT (outside Abuja city), were found to have unclean streets and roads.
Conversely, eight states successfully managed and sustained vegetation and drainage control.
