Amongst the natural resources dominated by Nigeria, water is the one that is most abundant. Despite the abundance of this natural resource, there are limited portable drinking water in the country with about 50 percent of the population facing threats of water-related diseases. Before Nigeria gained her independence, major Nigerian cities had functional water supply. But now, what remains of these water systems are broken pipes that have passages through drainages. Lack of hygienic water supply has made many Nigerian children suffer water-related crises.
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria’s Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Dr. Jane Bevan, stated that one-third of Nigerian children lack access to water supply while two-third lack basic sanitation services. This has also limited achievement of hand hygiene as about three-quarters of children do not wash their hands for unavailability of water and soap in resident homes. Currently, Nigeria is one of the 10 countries with the heaviest burden of child deaths from inadequate WASH-related diseases such as diarrhea.
Poor hygiene has socioeconomic consequences on children.
According to the Chief, 78 million Nigerian children are at an elevated risk of three water-related crises caused by inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene, climate hazards inclusive. Globally, the country also ranks second out of 163 countries bearing the greatest risk of exposure to climate and environmental hazards. There is a decrease in groundwater levels which requires communities to dig wells twice as deep as ten years ago. The intenseness and erratic nature of rainfall has also caused floods that contaminate available water supplies.
Implications of unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene also foster socioeconomic consequences that mostly affect women and children. Asides from morbidity and mortality, limited access to WASH services has negative impacts particularly on the lives of children such as increased absence from school and high drop-out rates in school, especially for girls. This also lead to retardation of the physical, cognitive and psycho-social development of young children, which are essential contributors to educational performance.
Formulation and regulation of drinking water quality standards.
Achievement of a positive WASH outlook is considered a collective responsibility for governments, home owners, families, unions and associations, work groups, private sector, civil society organizations and the media. Tackling water crisis in the country can begin with the improvement of investment in the sector, climate financing, improvement of accountability, strengthening climate resilience, and coordination and capacities for provision of water and sanitation services, while ensure implementation of the UN-Water Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Six on Global Acceleration Framework.
Another means of appropriately addressing poor WASH is by promotion of equity in use of resources and management for long-term benefits and impacts through management of WASH resources. The ministry of health is also required to ensure formulation and regulation of standards of drinking water quality, policy development, water control and prevention programmes, and sanitation-related diseases through the department of Public Health. Other ministries, agencies and parastatals should work collaboratively with MDA to achieve this objective.
CSOs should ensure community mobilization & sensitization.
Additionally, schools are urged to discourage open defecation and encourage toilet usage through establishment of demand for sanitation options. This action will promote hygiene and learning by participation and practice. Civil society organizations (CSO) likewise have the responsibility of calling for reform processes like promotion of accountability and good practices, while actively ensuring community mobilization and sensitization. Amidst all these, the media should tackle the sociocultural prejudices that have encouraged low-risk understanding of poor WASH.
Related Link
UNICEF: Website
