“We normally trek about one hour to neighbouring communities that have boreholes to get water for our daily needs.
“When our female children are having their menstrual period, many of them don’t go to school because there is no water for them to clean themselves properly,” says Mrs Celestina Ani, a resident of Umachi community in Igboeze North Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Corroborating the woman’s claims, UNICEF says that the lack of safe, separate and private sanitation and washing facilities in schools is one of the factors preventing girls from attending school, particularly when they are menstruating.
The report says women and girls pay the heaviest price for poor sanitation of communities, adding that shortage of water particularly affects the sanitation of several households.
This is because the people’s access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is certainly critical to the socio-economic development of any community.
The significance of WASH in communities was exposed vividly during a tour of some communities in Igboeze North Local Government Area in Enugu State by some journalists, under the aegis of WaterAid Nigeria.
WaterAid is an international organisation that promotes healthy living in communities across the world via improved access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.
In Nigeria, the agency operates in over 200 communities in six focal states – Bauchi, Benue, Ekiti, Enugu, Jigawa and Plateau.
Chief Moses Abugu, a community leader who spoke on behalf of the traditional ruler of Umachi community, Igwe Louis Umoro, said that there were three cholera-induced deaths in the community this year.
“We used to have old boreholes but they are no longer functioning.
“In this community, we are mostly palm-wine tappers, farmers and `Okada’ (motorcycle) riders. We do not have electricity and good roads.
“The government should come to our aid and if they do, we promise to employ the services of our youths to guard and maintain the equipment,’’ Abugu said.
Another community member, Mr Benedict Ali, said: “We don’t have water; some of us buy water from water tankers that come here twice in a week.
“About three families can come together and contribute money to buy a full water tanker load, which costs about N7, 000 to N10,000, and then share it accordingly,’’ he said.
Ali also bemoaned the bad state of the roads in the neighbourhood, which often frustrated water tankers to get into the community, describing it as a major challenge facing efforts to get water for the community’s use.
During a visit to Ekposhi community, also in Igboeze North Local Government Area of the state, the residents lamented about the rise in water-borne diseases due to the dearth of pipe-borne water.
Mr. Basil Onuh, a community member, said that the lack of pipe-borne water in the community had also encouraged open defecation in the area.
“Sometimes, when we go to the bush to defecate, we are often attacked by dangerous snakes and scorpions. Recently, we dug a pit where we can store water during rainfall.
“Some of us have contracted different kinds of diseases through this practice and we wish it could stop. This has also affected our livelihoods because we cannot water our crops during the dry season,’’ he said.
Mrs. Helen Urama, who sells “Okpa’’ (a variety of bean cake), said: “it’s only when we have money to buy water that our children go to school. I get the water which I use in cooking my `Okpa’ anywhere I can get it.’’
Two teachers at the local primary schools, Mr. Saliru Idoko and Mr. Isaac Ossai, said that some of the schools in the community did not have toilets, thereby forcing the pupils to engage in open defecation.
“Even though every family has been mandated to build pit toilets in our community, we still contract different kinds of infections,’’ said Mrs. Ngozi Idoko, a resident of Ekposhi community.
“We plead with the federal and state governments to give us water so as to improve our standard of living.’’
Mr. Samuel Ome, the Chairman of the National Task Group on Sanitation (NTGS), said that it was sad that open defecation still remained a big challenge across the country.
He stressed that many urban settlements even lacked basic hygiene facilities, thereby resulting in open defecation, which posed a threat to life, as feces were often washed into drinking water sources, thereby contaminating the water.
He underscored the need for Nigerians to cultivate clean habits, stressing that the people should always strive to exhibit good personal hygiene.
“Sanitation starts with the individual, those things you do involuntarily become your attitude.
“You wake up in the morning, you use the toilet, you flush the toilet, you brush your teeth, you wash your body before going to work; nobody prompts you to do it, you do it voluntarily.
“The garbage you bring out must be disposed of properly, so sanitation has a huge role to play in the household, the community and the nation,’’ he said.
Ome said that the government was doing a lot to improve the people’s access to sanitation, adding, however, that access to basic sanitation in Nigeria still stood at 41 per cent.
Saying that water was important to the development of a nation and individuals, Ome said that 70 per cent of the ailments affecting the people were water-related.
He noted that cholera usually affected persons living in unhygienic environments or those who drank contaminated water.
Ime, however, called on all Nigerians to cultivate the habit of hand-washing so as to avoid contracting water-borne diseases, while reducing unnecessary deaths.
“As you engage in your daily activities, you wash hands before you eat your food or after shaking hands.
“You can wash your hands up to four times in the office in order to improve your hygiene and minimise the risks of contracting communicable diseases.
“Washing your hands with soap or ashes in running water also helps to break the transmission of water-borne diseases,” he added.
Also speaking, Mr. Saheed Mustapha, Policy and Partnership Advisor, WaterAid, said that 90 per cent of diarrhoea cases in Nigeria were caused by the poor Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) culture of the people.
He said that WASH was central to every aspect of human existence, adding that problems associated with inadequate water and sanitation had a greater impact on the society.
“Almost 90 per cent of diarrhoea cases are caused by poor unsafe water and sanitation practices; water is life, we need to go beyond this level to improve the lives of Nigerians.
“Time-consuming water collection greatly contributes to poverty; access to safe water and sanitation facilities frees up valuable time that could be used for income-generating activities,’’ he said.
Mustapha noted that sanitation had become “a silent and neglected crisis’’, saying that more than 2.5 billion people lacked access to basic sanitation globally.
The WaterAid official quoted the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring 2014 report as saying that nearly 40 million Nigerians practised open defecation due to their lack of access to basic water and sanitation facilities.
He stressed that need to promote the hand-washing culture, as part of efforts to reduce preventable deaths, saying that children under the age of five were largely affected.
Mustapha also said that all the stakeholders ought to increase their investments in efforts to ensure that all public institutions, especially schools and markets, had inclusive, safe water and sanitation facilities.
He solicited the inclusion of a provision on basic sanitation in any poverty alleviation programme, saying that Nigeria lost about N455 billion annually to deaths caused by poor sanitation.
In all, experts underscore the need for the government and the people of Nigeria to show more commitment in efforts to reduce the incidence of water-related disease in the country.
