Over 110m Nigerians don’t use toilets
‘Reduction saves children’s lives, protects environment’
Studies have shown that 90 per cent of diarrhea cases in
children under five are related to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene, and
reduction in open defecation can significantly reduce the incidences of
diarrhea. A new release from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has
established a synergy between sanitation, children’s health and protection of
the environment. The statement which was to mark the World Environment Day
linked sanitation to the health of children and protection of the environment.
Open defecation causes contamination to water bodies, and is a serious threat
to public health, especially during flooding. “We know that by improving
sanitation, we can improve child survival as well as the environment,” the
UNICEF release said. Research has also shown that it is possible to improve the
sanitation situation in the country, especially in rural areas by engaging the
communities through a Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach.
Recommending the Community Led Total Sanitation approach, the UNICEF release
said it is a process of engaging with the community members ranging from
individuals to schools and traditional leaders and empowering them to address
their sanitation situation by ending open defecation, and the use of toilets
constructed by locally available materials.
Testimonies to improved public
health and a clean environment are common in the Open Defecation Free (ODF)
communities. UNICEF partners with relevant government ministries, departments
and agencies, NGOs, donors such as European Union and UK Aid to support
implementation of CLTS in 30 states of the country. Consequently, there are
more than 4,000 ODF claimed communities with over 2.5 million inhabitants now
using toilets. Going by Unicef figures, this implies that about 110 million
Nigerians do not use modern toilet facilities.
With continuous support from
governments and other partners in scaling up this approach, more Nigerians will
live in open defecation free communities. Although current sanitation coverage
is low at 31 per cent, successful models like the CLTS approach have already
demonstrated that it is possible to achieve quick progress in access to
sanitation. Experts believe that the country can still make substantial progress
towards attaining the MDG sanitation specific target, with the right
prioritization of resources, political will and collective efforts. The country
has already demonstrated its commitment by successfully hosting the
Presidential Summit on Water in February 2013. “Ending open defecation also
means saving the lives of thousands of Nigerian children dying annually from
preventable water and sanitation related diseases” says Jean Gough, UNICEF
Nigeria Country Representative.
This story was published in Newswatch Times on June 8, 2013.
Comments
Post a Comment