World Hand Washing Day: Nigerians who defecate in the open on the rise

The celebration last week of the Global Hand Washing Day was yet another reinforcement of the dire need for Nigerians to imbibe the culture of hand washing.
Over 250,000 pupils from selected 100 schools across the nation took part in the celebration, washing their hands with soap and running water.
Speaking at a celebration to mark the day in Abuja Minister of Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Reng Ochekpe, said one of the major causes of death among under-fives was the poor handling of human faeces. “Human faeces are the main sources of the transmission of pathogens and when poorly handled, can cause a lot of diseases like cholera and diarrhoea which can be deadly especially among children.”
She noted that regular hand washing with soap or ashes have been found to be effective in reducing the rate of diarrhoea in households where there is strict observance than in households where hand washing is not promoted.
At the ceremony tagged ‘Chose Handwashing, Chose Health’, it was also revealed that no fewer than 33 million people still practised open defecation in Nigeria.
Mr Samuel Ome, Director, Water Quality Control and Sanitation, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, said it was sad that open defecation was still a big challenge in the country.
According to him, many urban settlements lacked hygiene facilities, resulting in open defecation, which posed a threat to life as faeces were washed into drinking water sources.
Ome, who is also the Chairman, National Task Group on Sanitation (NTGS), stressed the need for attitudinal change to reduce water-borne diseases.
He said it was important that Nigerians cultivate clean habits, pointing out that good hygiene, often termed as ‘a personal thing’, should reflect in the lives of Nigerians. “Sanitation starts with the individual; those things you do involuntarily become your attitude. You wake up in the morning, you use the toilet, you flush the toilet, you brush your teeth, you wash your body before going to work; nobody prompts you to do it, you do it voluntarily.
“In a sense, sanitation is personal; those personal things you do and attitude you cultivate to improve your cleanliness. Sanitation starts from the family point. The garbage you bring out must be disposed of properly, so sanitation has a huge role to play in the family, community and to the nation,” Ome said.
He said basic access to sanitation in Nigeria still stood at 41 per cent coverage.
Ome said water was important in the development of a nation as water is life.
He said 70 per cent of ailments were water related, including cholera, which affected people living in unhygienic environments or consumed bad water.
He called on all Nigerians to cultivate the habit of hand washing to reduce unnecessary deaths from water-borne diseases.
“As you go on your daily activities, before you eat your food, after shaking hands, you can wash your hands up to four times in the office so as to improve your hygiene to minimise the transmission of diseases.
“Washing your hands with soap or ashes in running water helps to break the transmission of water-borne diseases.
“What we are advocating is that if we can do it for Ebola, we can do it for cholera and others,” Ome said.