The people of Agboyi Ketu, a riverine agrarian community have tasked the Lagos State Government on the provision of improved healthcare services and other infrastructure in the town.
They said because of the area’s swampy terrain and poor access roads, they have difficulties accessing medical services.
Other environmental factors, the added, aslo cause high maternal and child mortality rates in the town.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) system in the area as well as healthcare delivery is poor.
The community, which is less than a seven-minute boat ride from the Agboyi jetty in Agboyi-Ketu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) Secretariat, is usually flooded during the rainy season and also lacks potable water.
The residents pleaded with the government to make its presence be felt in the community. They also appealed for 24-hour healthcare delivery services in their only health centre to improve health indices.
A traditional ruler, Chief Timothy Bankole, the Asoju-Oba of Agboyi land, said women in the community patronised Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) because their services were available day and night.
Bankole, a retired Director in the Lagos State Ministry of Education, said that the Primary Health Centre (PHC) was only open till 3:30pm every day, thereby exposing the people that needed to access it beyond that time to challenges.
“It is a long term problem; the PHC here does not operate like other centres I know in Lagos; our women believe and use TBAs because they are available and operate round the clock.
“It is only recently that an NGO did a make-over on the PHC, yet the centre is not equipped to take child birth deliveries; this is a problem considering the location of this community where one has to cross the lagoon by wooden boat to access the metropolis.
“We have tried to convince our people to patronise the centre; the patronage has improved but they only go there to take injections or immunisation.
“You cannot even register them for ante-natal and deliveries when they always close around 3 p.m. daily and the TBAs operate round the clock; it works for them and so, they continue,’’ he said.
The retired director called on sanitary inspectors in the Lagos State Ministry of Health to visit the area and sensitise the residents so that their patronage of the health centre would improve.
Bankole lamented that it was pathetic that the community which had been in existence for over 500 years did not to have a link road to the city.
“The absence of a road linking the community to the metropolis has sent us backward; there is no visible progress in this community.
“We urge the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode-led government to intensify efforts to build a link bridge that will connect us to other communities.
“It is also sad that our community is surrounded by water yet this water is polluted and not drinkable; we cannot even fish there because all forms of human and domestic waste goes directly into it.
“We buy sachet water (Pure Water) from the town across the river and it is very expensive, so, you will see that many people here have skin infections.
“Many non-governmental organisaions (NGOs) have visited the community to assist our people; these are temporary measures because we need the people we voted into power to come and improve the standard of this community,’’ Bankole said.
A staff of the PHC, who did not disclose her name, confirmed that the women in the community only come to the centre to give their babies injections, adding that only three official members of staff manage the facility.
“We are here because of the passion for our profession; we have tried to convince the women to come here for their ante-natal but they prefer to go to the TBAs because they are used to them.
“The patronage is very low but at least they are bringing their babies for injection; we also have cases of malaria and skin diseases and we treat and counsel accordingly.
“However, with more personnel, as well as increased sensitisation and advocacy by all stakeholders and a functional 24-hour service in the centre, more women will patronise this PHC,’’ she said.
A traditional birth attendant in the community, Mrs Nurat Agoro, who said she had been practising there for over 25 years without recording any death associated with child birth, noted that she had gone through series of training by the Lagos State Ministry of Health.
“In 2016, I delivered over 200 babies in my home and I always refer complicated birth delivery cases to the clinic outside the community.
“I collaborate with the PHC to ensure that pregnant women patronise the facility before and after child birth,’’ she said.
