Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is integral to epidemic preparedness and response globally. But in several communities in
Nigeria, access to clean water and sanitary facilities is a major challenge, thereby undermining the country’s ability to prepare and respond to outbreaks of diseases effectively.
“This has been our plight for the past few years. We know this water might not be safe for us, but who cares? You have to survive first,” he told TheCable.But water is not the only hygiene-related issue confronting the community. The majority of the households lack toilets, forcing them to embrace open defecation. Around the community were indiscriminate dumpsites and clogged drainages with houseflies having a feast.
“We don’t have toilets, so we defecate inside the bush. I don’t know if anyone has died of cholera but we have had instances of people struggling with some kind of illness; I don’t know if the disease is due to the water we are drinking,” Maryam, a resident, said. “After our enquiry with the person that will repair the two boreholes, we learnt it would cost us N800,000 to fix the engines but we don’t have money for that,” he said.Yakubu added that one of the available WASH projects constructed in January stopped working a few weeks after.This is despite the fact that Niger is one of the 13 states with suspected cases of cholera in 2023, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control .
“Some 829,000 people in low and middle-income countries die as a result of inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene each year, representing 60% of total diarrhoeal deaths. Poor sanitation is believed to be the main cause in some 432,000 of these deaths and is a major factor in several neglected tropical diseases, including intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and trachoma. Poor sanitation also contributes to malnutrition,” the report said.
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