Nigeria loses N455 billion annually due to poor hygiene, says expert

Nigeria loses about N455 billion annually, an equivalent of 1.3 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to poor sanitation and lack of good hygiene practices.

In the same vein, 127,800 Nigerians including 87,100 children under five years die every year from diarrhoea, with nearly 90 percent of which is directly attributed to poor water sanitation and hygiene.

Jagmeet Uppal, hygiene promotion consultant to United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF)   quoting from the World Bank 2012 Sanitation report said in an interview that the threat of cholera outbreak in the country is looming large in many states of the federation.

“The cognitive development of Nigerian children is affected due to poor sanitation and poor hygiene practices especially in rural areas,’’ he said.

Describing Nigeria’s overall sanitation coverage as “very poor,’’ he  said most people do not indulge in good hygiene practices adding that   a comprehensive approach of good sanitary and hygiene practice involving hand washing with soap at critical times should be adopted.

Uppal who identified  faeces contamination of the environment as the root cause  of 5,400 cases of cholera affecting Nigerians yearly, he said the economic implication of a cholera outbreak goes beyond the immediate health system response.

“There are also costs related to productivity loss and premature death, diverting expenditures from other essential items and losses in trade and tourism revenue,’’ he said.

Noting  that early childhood diarrhoea contributes to under nutrition, stunting and wasting which he said are associated with malnutrition and in turn with reduced long term cognitive development, the cognitive ability of children, the hygiene expert saidinfection with soil-transmitted diseases is also an important cause of impairment in intellectual and cognitive development.

Speaking at the sidelines of a workshop on hygiene and sanitation for participants from five states of the country including officials from the federal ministry of water resources, he  called on water and sanitation officials to work with school children through their respective communities by introducing cost effective measure of hand washing with soap in schools to help in the promotion of hygiene in the community.

Uppal who  identified safe excreta management, safe drinking water, personal hygiene with emphasis on hand washing with soap “at critical times”,  as well as food and environmental hygiene  as key to hygiene promotion and good sanitation practices, said school children should set up hand washing facilities using empty water bottles in their schools which he said should be extended to communities through their mothers.

In an interview, Saaondo Anom, water sanitation and hygiene Specialist at UNICEF, Enugu field office said children were being targeted in the promotion of hygiene because they are the most vulnerable to diseases as they are growing up and could hardly take care of themselves.

“So in the course of our programming, you prioritise the group that is most vulnerable, that is our number one concern, for children and mothers, mothers because they are the closest to the child. The mother can take care of the child. So we focus on women and we focus on children,’’ he said.

ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK