•Only 31% of populace have access to improved sanitation facilities

Nigeria has once again been ranked by the United Nations as one of the top five countries in the world with the largest people defecating in the open. According to the latest joint report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), no fewer than 23 percent (37million) of Nigerians still defecate in the open all over the country – an increase from the 34 million people reported last year.

The recently released report titled: “Progress on Sanitation and drinking water 2013 update.” Also showed that Nigeria has not achieved any significant sanitation improvement in the last 11years between 1990 till date. For instance, in 1990, 24 percent of the country’s population indulged in open defecation while this reduced by just one percent in 2000. The report further indicated that the country, since 2000, has not been able to reduce the number of people who defecate in the open as the latest study carried out in 2011 showed that 23 percent of the country’s population still indulge in the dirty habit.

The sad story, the report indicates does not end there as it revealed that only 28 percent of the rural communities in the country have access to improved sanitation. This is just five percent away from that of those in the urban part of the country, hence, implying that no fewer than 75 percent of Nigerians still do not have access to improved sanitation facilities.

Access to any form of sanitation facilities, reports indicate, varies widely in Nigeria, with estimates ranging from as low as 15% in some areas and higher than 80% in others. Nationally, estimates from recent studies show that less than half the Nigeria population has access to improved sanitation facilities, while institutional sanitation rates are also low, particularly in schools. On the average, there is only one toilet for every 500 students in schools, 8 ten times the standard of one for every 50 students.

Consequently, Nigeria like the rest of the world still remains off track in meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) sanitation target, which requires halving by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to basic sanitation. In Nigeria, this means 70% must have access by 2015. An estimated additional 62 million Nigerians must gain access to basic sanitation from now until 2015. Unfortunately, with about 75 percent of the country’s population lacking good sanitation facilities, the consequences in various aspects of the lives of the country’s populace have been quite enormous.

According to a joint UNICEF and World Health Organisation (WHO) 2012 report, more than 1.1 billion people across the world engage in open defecation with no fewer than 34 million from Nigeria. Consequences of this has however been dire as the faeces find their way into water sources when it rains which in turn results in cholera, diarrhea, and other preventable illnesses and deaths. Unfortunately, children, reports so far indicate are often the ones at the receiving end. In short, reports indicate 3.5 million children die every year before their fifth birthday because of diarrhea, while one child every 15 seconds dies unnecessarily from diarrhoearelated diseases which could have been prevented through good use of sanitation facilities.

Again, many families have stories to tell about pains suffered from loss of children, especially those less than five years.

The effect of this poor sanitation situation has also been discovered to have direct impact on the nation’s workforce as many people are said to be affected in diverse ways as they lose thousands of man-hours to communicable diseases.

According to Dr. Ogunnubi Peter, President, Real Visionaries Initiative – a non for profit group which seeks healthier living for Nigerians – lack of access to basic sanitation facilities, coupled with poor hygiene practices, causes diarrhoea. Diarrhoea is the 2nd largest direct cause of childhood mortality in Nigeria and is a major contributing factor to malnutrition and other diseases such as pneumonia.

He further revealed that lack of safe, private toilets and hand-washing facilities in schools affects educational enrolment and performance, adding that “girls in particular are the most affected. Believe me as I state this, our poor sanitary condition in Nigeria is a major contributing factor in the country’s low girl enrolment rates”.

According to Peters, these consequences equally affect the nation’s economic development as much manpower hours are lost as a result of poor sanitation. He however noted that over 10million productive days would be gained if access to both water and sanitation rose to 100 percent. This, he says outweighs the costs, including health care costs and lost productivity presently being incurred in the country.

In 2011, almost two thirds (64%) of the world population relied on improved sanitation facilities, while 15% continued to defecate in the open. Since 1990, almost 1.9 billion people have gained access to an improved sanitation facility. The world, however, remains off track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) sanitation target, which requires reducing the proportion of people without access from 51% in 1990, to 25% by 2015.

The greatest progress has been made in Eastern Asia, where sanitation coverage has increased from 27% in 1990 to 67% in 2011. This amounts to more than 626 million people gaining access to improved sanitation facilities over a 21-year period. The exact opposite is the case in Nigeria as sanitation coverage has only increased by six percent since 1995 till date.

With the rains already pouring in several parts of the country, and the Nigerian Metrological Agency (NIMET) predicting heavy downpours this year, Malam Adamu Danladi, the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Coordinator in Dass LGA in Bauchi state prescribes “Construction and maintenance of toilets as well as maintenance and periodic evacuation of the household excrements” as top priorities.

Also, UNICEF Head of Water and Hygiene Section, Vinod Alkari, advises: “though Nigeria is still faced with a lot of challenges in terms of access to improved sanitation and water, improving the disposal of human excreta, keeping our environment clean by not throwing refuse around and stopping open defecations can drastically reduce disease burden due to sanitation-related diseases and contribute to economic transformation. This way, the country will stop losing N455 billion annually as a result of poor sanitary habits among the populace”.


http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/whounicef-update-on-sanitation-more-nigerians-still-defecate-in-the-open/

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