‘112m Nigerians Lack Access To Sanitation, Water Aid’

The Water Aid Nigeria,
a non-governmental organisation says more than 112 million Nigerians have no access to improved sanitation.
The country representative of the organisation, Dr Michael Ojo, who said this in an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt, also said that 37 million Nigerians still practise open defecation. Dr Ojo also said that more than 100,000 children under the age of five die of diarrhoea every year, while cases of cholera are being reported since 2010 in states like Lagos, Benue, Zamfara Ebonyi, Benue, Nassarawa, Kano, Jigawa, Osun, Bauchi and Oyo states and attributed it to  consumption of contaminated water.
“There are diseases that are waterborne, water related and some that are linked to  water and we have health conditions which have requirements for water.
“We need to highlight the impact of water sanitation and hygiene on health, especially on the health of our children.
“There are children dying every day in our country and not only from diarrhoea, but also other water related diseases” he said.
He said that 40 per cent statistics have shown stunted growth among children between the ages of zero and five.
According to him, they are not growing as they should, they are underdeveloped physically and the reason for that is because of the repeated bouts of diarrhoea that they have to contend with.
He explained that young children in poor and vulnerable communities, the little nutrition gained through food was lost through faeces and vomiting while suffering from water-borne diseases stressing that the children are not developing sufficiently to utilise all the nutrients grow.
“So what we are dong with the lack of access to water sanitation and hygiene is that we are starting up a crisis for ourselves in the future, he said.