… As 39 million people practice open defecation in Nigeria
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), has said that 50 million Nigerians are among the 946 million people around the world who do not have access to toilets and are obliged to defecate in the open.
This is even as the Green World Matters Ltd, said Nigeria accounts for about 39 million of the 2.4 billion people in theworld practicing open defecation
UNICEF, in a statement to commemorate, “World Toilet Day”, stressed that lack of access to toilets is endangering millions of the world’s poorest children, with Nigeria among the five countries in the world with the greatest rates of open defecation.
It pointed to emerging evidence of links between inadequate sanitation and malnutrition, adding that lack of sanitation, particularly open defecation, contributes to the incidence of diarrhea and to the spread of intestinal parasites, both of which cause malnutrition.
According to the statement, more than seven million Nigerian children under five years old are stunted, short and underdeveloped for their age as a result of malnutrition, adding that they are among the estimated 159 million under-fives globally who are stunted.
The statement signed by the Head of UNICEF’s Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programmes, Sanjay Wijesekera further said; “We need to bring concrete and innovative solutions to the problem of where people go to the toilet, otherwise we are failing millions. The proven link with malnutrition is one more thread that reinforces how interconnected our responses to sanitation have to be if we are to succeed.
"Worldwide, diarrhea accounts for 9 per cent of the deaths of children under 5 years old each year. It is essentially a faecal-oral disease, where germs are ingested due to contact with infected faeces."
The Organization further stated that every year, Nigeria loses over 150,000 children to diarrhea after pneumonia, adding that it is the biggest killer of Nigeria’s under-fives as 88 per cent of diarrhea cases in Nigeria are attributed to unsafe water and sanitation.
UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Jean Gough, noted that Nigeria has made major progress in addressing both access to sanitation and the nutritional status of its children, saying: “In 2008, we had only 15 rural communities that were free of open defecation. Today, thanks to concerted efforts by the Government and partners, including UKAID, the EU and UNICEF, there are more than 12,000."
In a related development, Green World Matters Ltd, said noted that children drink water that is mixed with farces dumped
indiscriminately in rivers and other sources of drinking water, and called for an end to the practice to arrest the ugly situation in the country.
Chief Operating Officer of Green World Matters Ltd, Hajiya Ladi Rekiya Faruk, stated this in an address she delivered at a
seminar to commemorate this year’s World Toilet Day in Kaduna, said every day, children drink water that is mixed with farces which is dumped indiscriminately in rivers and other sources of drinking water.
According to her; "This phenomenon causes a child to die every 2.5 minutes from diarrhea which has become the third biggest killer of children under five years old and from cholera, dysentery and other water borne diseasesespecially in the developing world.
"It is estimated that one in three of the world's population has been said not to have access to safe, clean, private toilets while about 2.4 billion people still defecate in the open.
"Incidences have been recorded of women being raped as they make to find dark, hidden, isolated and convenient places to ease themselves while girls have left schools for as simple a reason as the inability to clean themselves adequately during their menstrual cycles.
"In the course of our clean up exercise, we realized that some of the drainages and gutters around the metropolis have been converted to toilets. This discovery lends credence to the high rate of recurring and seemingly untreatable ailments amongst residents and the need for the provision of public conveniences.
"Sanitation, which is the safe separation of fasces and refuse from human contact and the environment, ensures that people are protected from the spread of preventable diseases such as soil transmitted helminthiasis, diarrhea, chronic malnutrition in children and cholera.
"This problem cannot be left to government, the private sector or to NGOs to go it alone - we must all work together to create a synergistic movement that will put sanitation issues at the top of our Development Agenda.
"Ending the practice of open defecation can help reduce hospital visits, child mortality, rape and missed school days," she said.
- Halima Ogiri and Amos Tauna
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