Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fund sanitation improvement project in Nigeria

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will provide $6.3m to non-profit organisation WaterAid to improve sanitation facilities in Nigeria.

The scope of the four year-project will involve WaterAid working with the local government bodies across the country to facilitate affordable and sustainable sanitation services to a large number of people in Nigeria.

The project will build on WaterAid’s years of experience of applying and adapting the community-led total sanitation (CLTS) approach in Nigeria.

WaterAid said that CLTS is an innovative methodology used to mobilse communities to completely eliminate open defecation.

WaterAid America CEO David Winder added, "The Gates Foundation has once again invested in improving the lives of millions of the world’s poorest people."

"We are thrilled that they have decided to support our work in Nigeria."

WaterAid aims to improve people’s lives by offering access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities, to further underpin health, education and livelihoods, thus forming an essential step in overcoming poverty.

The project will reduce the costs related with illness caused by poor sanitation, to further boost country’s economic growth.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous state with 103 million people lacking proper facilities for hygiene and sanitation leading to both devastating human and economic loss.