Over 20 states fell below national average in WASH to save lives
By Tada JUTHA, Maiduguri
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that 22 states have failed to reach the national average of 70% in Water Supply; Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) to save lives.
According to the Fund, about 860,000 children die each year of under-nutrition caused by inadequate facilities for WASH.
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The UNICEF Manager for WASH, Mamita Thakkar disclosed this at the weekend during a media orientation programme to mark 2021 World Toilet Day in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
She said the national average failed states include Delta, Kano, Akwa/Ibom, Bauchi, Plateau, Kaduna, Kogi, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Cross River and Bayelsa.
Others that failed to reach the national average in WASH comprise Benue, Gombe, Kebbi, Sokoto and Taraba with the least percentage point of 36 in water supply services to households.
“Only Lagos, Imo and Jigawa are in the 90 per cent bracket,” she said, as the three states provided water supply services to their residents and guard against water borne diseases.
She therefore warned that six states have also fallen below the 50% national average in access to WASH.
Mamita noted that despite access to basic water facilities, open defecation still persists in the six geo-political zones; with the North Central topping 51 percent, while the Southwest has 28%.
She said that the national access to basic sanitation is 44% of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), while access to safely managed sanitation to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) stood at 21percent.
On access to basic sanitation services in the country, she noted that 22 states however fell below the national average of 44 per cent.
Continuing, “While Imo, Kano, Anambra and Adamawa states led with 60 percent of basic sanitation services to the people.
She however noted that all the 36 states, including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory recorded less than 50% of access to basic hygiene services.
“Twenty two states fell below the national average of 15 per cent,” she lamented.
According to her, the six geopolitical zones have also recorded only 16 per cent access to basic hygiene services with only nine percent in the Northeast.
During the 12-year Boko Haram insurgency, $9.2 billion (N3.42 trillion) worth of public structures and other property were destroyed in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
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Speaking on the health and economic impacts, she said that Nigeria loses N455 billions of her Gross Domestic Products (GDP) to poor access to sanitation, while 102,000 children below five die each to diarrhea.
She further disclosed that about 90 percent of children’s deaths are attributed to unsafe water and sanitation in the country.
