WHO, UNICEF say world’s 2.36bn people lack basic, hygienic toilet

… Nigeria in worsening trends with deceasing sanitation access

A joint monitoring programme by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed that some 2.36 billion people in the world do not have basic, hygienic toilets while 663 million others are still without ‘improved’ source of water.

The regular update is the last report on progress and access to drinking water and sanitation ahead of the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals, a set of lofty UN ambitions which set out in 2000 to halve the proportion of people without access to water and sanitation, among other goals.

A statement by WaterAid Nigeria made available to BusinessDay notes that as these goals expire this year, the goal on water has been met overall, but with wide gaps remaining, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, pointing out that the goal on sanitation, however, has failed dramatically such that, at present rates of progress, it would take 300 years for everyone in Sub-Saharan Africa to get access to a sanitary toilet.

“At the last update, in 2014, 748 million people were found to not have access to an ‘improved’ water source and 2.5 billion were without basic, sanitary toilets”, the statement says, explaining that ‘improved’ water sources are protected from contamination and usually safe to drink.

According to the statement signed by Oluseyi Abdulmalik, WaterAid Nigeria Communications and Campaigns Manager, Nigeria has recorded practically no progress in the area of sanitation, saying that in 1990, 38 percent of the population had access to improved sanitation.

“In 2015, this figure is now a woeful 29 percent (up just a meagre 1percent from 2014’s figure of 28 percent). The proportion of Nigeria’s population that has gained access to improved sanitation since 1990 is only 9 percent”, Oluseyi said.

He recalled that in 1990, 24 percent of the population was practicing open defecation, adding that that figure in 2015 is now 25 percent and that in 2014, it was 23 percent which means “we’re not only worse off now than we were 25 years ago but in the past year alone, we’ve regressed by 2percent in this regard”.

Michael Ojo, WaterAid Nigeria Country Representative, notes that a lot has changed in the 25 years since the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme began to document the world’s access to drinking water and sanitation, saying that the picture for Nigeria has, for the most part, remained quite grim.

“Communities without safe water and basic toilets have higher rates of illness and are held back from economic progress. Children spend long hours fetching water instead of at school desks, parents are less able to spend time earning incomes and hospitals fill with people suffering from preventable water-borne illnesses. The burden is disproportionally felt by women and girls, who are most often tasked with fetching water and who are most at risk of harassment and worse if they are without a safe, private place to relieve themselves”, he added.

Continuing, he said that “as the UN prepares to adopt new development goals this September, mapping out ways to eradicate extreme poverty while building a healthier, more sustainable world by 2030, water and sanitation must play a key role. Without these basic human rights, no society can progress. It is possible to reach everyone, everywhere with access to clean water and basic toilets by 2030 but it will require dedicated political will and financing to achieve this”.

Ojo stated that as a nation, Nigeria cannot afford to wait another 25 years till everyone has access to safe water or in the case of sanitation, just to record minimal progress or worse still, to have regressed even further, advising that the goal must be to ensure that inequality was eliminated and everyone everywhere had access to safe water and basic sanitation by 2030.

CHUKA UROKO