Importance of WASH to Nigerians

 

Water is life is a popular axiom. There’s practically nothing one can do in this life that does not involve the use of water. If it’s not for drinking, the essential product is needed for washing and sanitation. It is vital for both domestic and industrial uses. Make no mistake about it, every living organism needs water to survive. The existence of man, animals, and plants depends on water. It is unimaginable if there could ever be life without water. Despite the existence of streams, rivers, oceans, well, borehole and rain, water is still very scarce in many communities especially during the dry season as we are now. Many water sources have dried up as a result of hot weather conditions. In places where there is drought, vegetation has withered, animals are dying and human existence is also threatened. There have been stories of people who do not have easy access to water having to drink their own urine!

The lack of water impacts negatively on sanitation and hygiene. It is a required cultural practice to wash the mouth and take a bath at least once a day. When clothes are dirty they are to be washed and ironed before being reused. To cook food, you need water. Likewise, water is needed to wash plates and other utensils after use. To flush toilets you need water the same way the commodity is required to wash hands when they are dirty or after using the toilet. No wonder the late Afrobeat music legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, said in one of his timeless songs titled, ‘Water’ that ‘water no get enemy.’ Truth be told, the challenge Nigeria faces with the high number of people still practising open defecation is a result of the lack of easy access to water. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigerians and indeed all citizens of the world were asked to engage in regular handwashing. It was an open secret that not many people complied with that advisory because of the scarcity of water in many communities.

I lived in an area in Ibadan as a child where because we did not have pipe-borne water we had to walk kilometres at dawn to go and source water from a brook at about 4 am. If we did not go to the river, we went and queued at a well for hours on end in order to fetch some buckets of water for household use. The scarcity of water has made many people to skip daily bath and regular washing of dirty clothes.

My personal experience while growing up is further corroborated by an international non-governmental organisation known as WaterAid which says on its website that three in 10 people in Nigeria don’t have clean water close to home; three in five people in Nigeria don’t have a toilet of their own and four in five people in Nigeria lack handwashing facilities at home.

To underscore the importance of water, sanitation and hygiene better known as WASH, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 6.1 and 6.2 talk about increased access to water, sanitation and hygiene.  According to Water Action Hub, the SDGs targets are that “by 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all” and “by 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.”

The SDG 6.1 and 6.2 was crafted in the context of improving affordable access to water and sanitation through the construction of wells, toilets, rainwater harvesting systems and other small-scale water systems, restoration of drinking water sources, or engaging in awareness and education initiatives that promote good hygiene practices. It is believed that organisations can also work together to address cumulative impacts on local water resources impacting WASH outcomes.

According to Water Action Hub, “Access to safe drinking water, basic sanitation, and improved hygiene have a major impact on human health, education, economic development, women empowerment, and ecosystem quality. Engaging in WASH issues with local communities through improving physical access and/or supporting behavioural change can lead to decreased disease, better health, poverty reduction, and new opportunities for growth.”

The Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) regime was very concerned about the poor rating of Nigeria on water sanitation and hygiene that on Thursday, November 8, 2018, the president declared a state of emergency on WASH. The president said the declaration became imperative to reduce the high prevalence of water-borne diseases (such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery) in different parts of the country, which has caused preventable deaths. Inaugurating the National Action Plan for Revitalisation of Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector at the State House Conference Centre, Buhari directed government at all levels to redouble efforts and work towards meeting the nation’s water supply and sanitation needs. The president described statistics on open defecation, access to piped water services and sanitation in the country as ‘disturbing,’ warning that henceforth, the Federal Government support to state governments will be based on their commitment to implement the National WASH Action Plan in their respective states and to end open defecation by 2025.

Three years after, the president set the tone by declaring a state of emergency on WASH, the Federal Capital Territory on Tuesday, November 9, 2021, did the same. Dr Ramatu Aliyu, FCT Minister of State, made the declaration. Aliyu stated that 39.4 per cent of the FCT population and a total of 47 million people in the country still actively practise open defecation. At the event, the Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, urged the institutions at the area councils and around the communities to champion the campaign by providing adequate resources. He was quoted as saying, “As part of the efforts being made in the battle against open defecation, this administration has established the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency as the coordinating body for WASH in the FCT.

According to UNICEF Nigeria’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping Report 2021, “The Nigeria WASH sector has made modest progress in the last couple of years, with the presidential declaration of a state of emergency in the WASH sector and the national flag-off of the clean Nigeria campaign towards achieving an open defecation-free Nigeria by 2025. However, as revealed by the 2021 WASHNORM report, about 48 million Nigerians still defecate in the open, while only 8 per cent of the population practise safe handwashing. Furthermore, 23 per cent of Nigerians do not have access to basic water supply services and only 10 per cent of the population have access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene services combined.”

This survey report shows that Nigeria may not meet SDG 6.1 and 6.2 by 2030. This UNICEF report is a further call to an all-hands-on-deck effort to reverse Nigeria’s unenviable position on WASH even after years of the declaration of a state of emergency in the sector. The Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Development Awareness on December 8, 2022, held a stakeholder meeting on water sanitation and hygiene where a few other media icons and I were unveiled as CESDA WASH Media Champions.

It is an open secret that all and sundry must make effort to curb open defecation and promote sanitation and good hygiene practices. As I said during the stakeholder meeting, there is a need to ensure that environmental health officers across the country, popularly called ‘Wole-Wole’ in Yoruba are well-resourceful to play their role of enforcement of sanitation and hygiene in our homes, schools, motor parks, markets, shopping malls, government offices, private businesses and public places. For example, houses without toilet facilities should be sealed up till the owner is able to provide the conveniences. Schools, private and public, without decent toilet facilities, should likewise be shut down. Aside from scaling up the sensitisation efforts, the enforcement of extant laws and policies is key to the drastic reduction in unwholesome WASH practices.