Environmentalist urges Nigerian Government to meet sanitation needs of Nigerians
An environmentalist, Mr Rufus Aderopo, has called on all tiers of government to evolve plans to meet the sanitation and hygiene needs of Nigerians as the nation’s population is increasing. Aderopo, a co-convener, Earth and Life Mission, an advocacy group, made the call at a news conference in Abuja.
He said that as the country`s population was expanding, there was the need for sanitation facilities to match population growth.
According to him, for the development to be all-encompassing, Nigeria should begin to take concrete steps towards meeting the sanitation and hygiene needs of its population.
The environmentalist said it was a matter of regret that open defecation and indiscriminate dumping of refuse were still big challenges towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. He urged the relevant authorities in the country to reverse the trend.
According to Aderopo, over 70 per cent of ailments are caused by lack of good sanitation and non-availability of potable water for the citizenry.
He explained that hygiene-related diseases are the leading causes of deaths among under-five children annually, saying that this could be prevented by washing of hands with soap and water.
“Empowering children to be hygiene heroes will go a long way in promoting the hand washing culture in the society. Children can tell their parents, friends and teachers the benefits of washing their hands at critical times. They could also act as change agents to reduce increasing rate of preventable deaths,” he said.
The environmentalist called for continuous awareness so more Nigerians could know the benefits of hygiene and sanitation, thus reducing disease and death.
“Hand washing with soap at critical times prevents families from getting diarrhea and other diseases,” he said.
Aderopo noted that such critical times included after defecation, before handling food, before eating and before feeding a child. He said that if Bangladesh and Peru could reduce open defecation prevalence to single digit, open defecation-free was possible in Nigeria.
“Nigeria can achieve its target of meeting the National Roadmap of Ending Open defecation by 2025, if it puts policies in place to encourage behavioral change for sanitation and hygiene. There is a gap between knowledge and attitude in hygiene promotion practice, and this can be reduced with proper hygiene promotion messages.
“Historically, Nigeria is known for having sanitary inspectors which carry out enforcement of hygiene practices. There should be a re-introduction of these inspectors in the society to reduce possible outbreaks of preventable diseases,” he said.
According to Aderopo, poor persons are 36 times more likely to defecate in the open than rich individuals, due to the disproportionate distribution of wealth in the society.
Aderopo explained that there was the need for all stakeholders to develop simple, better, cost-effective messages that would enable more Nigerians change their behavior towards hygiene promotion.
He said since the Federal Government was a signatory to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, “there is the need to deliberately remove barriers to sanitation and hygiene problems in the country’’.
NAN / Foluke Ibitomi
