Sanitation Updates

Onyebuchi Ezigbo, Abuja

As part of efforts to promote good sanitary condition and hygienic practice in the country, the Minister of Environment, Housing and Urban Development, Halima Tayo Alao has called for a positive attitudinal and behavioral change among Nigerians to enhance their health and well being.

The Minister made the remarks in a keynote address presented at the North-west zonal campaign on hand washing held in Katsina.

(…) The North- west campaign is the first in the series of the hand wash, campaign in the six geo-political zones of the country. It will be recalled that the First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua performed the national launch of the campaign last month.

Read all allafrica.com

Original news in Thisday Laos

The United Nations Child Education Fund UNICEF has ruled out Nigeria’s chances of meeting the millennium development goal target of 70 per cent population access to sanitation facilities by 2015.

Deputy representative of UNICEF in Nigerian made this observation in an interview in Abuja where he attributed this to the country’s large population.

According to Limlim, poor sanitation causes diarrhea and put Nigeria’s diarrhea prevalence rate at 18.8 per cent.

He said this had led to high child mortality rate, making it the second killer of children after malaria.

Limlim noted that other diseases linked to high diarrhea prevalence included acute respiratory infection, cholera, polio and others.

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Commitment to wash hands at critical moments can mark an end to many diseases like diarrhea, which health experts say is second leading cause of death amongst Nigerian children after malaria. It is also said to be a key strategy for controlling the spread of Avian Influenza. This development led the Federal Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban Development, in collaboration with UNICEF and other stakeholders, to champion a hand wash campaign in Abuja. (…)

At the flag-off of the campaign, the First Lady,  Mrs  Turai Umaru Yar’Adua, said access to sanitation is a fundamental human right that safeguards public health and human dignity.  (…)

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EDO State Government has launched the UNICEF-Assisted Hand Washing Campaign aimed at promoting good hygienic practices and reducing sanitation-related diseases.

Performing the official launch of the Campaign, the State Governor, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor observed that the campaign could not have come at a better time than this year which has been declared by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Year of Sanitation (IYS), describing the declaration as one of the ways of meeting the sanitation target as embedded in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) towards sustainable access to basic sanitation by 2015.

The Governor explained that the campaign focused on five key messages targeted at political leaders, policy makers and the populace.

He enumerated the messages as, sanitation is vital for human health; generates economic benefits; contributes to dignity and social development as well as helps the environment.

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Programme Officer-Sanitation & Hygiene

Candidate will lead our research in the sanitation and hygiene sector to strengthen our policy and advocacy work. And will support the development and evaluation of pilot sanitation and hygiene service delivery models and strengthen WaterAid’s contribution to the sanitation and hygiene sector.

Candidate will bring excellent organizational, planning and report writing skills to the team and 3 years work experience of which at least 1 must be in the water & sanitation sector. Experience in desk research is also a requirement.

Programme Officer-Urban Water & Sanitation

Candidate will conduct research on urban water and sanitation to strengthen WaterAid’s policy and advocacy work and support the development and evaluation of pilot urban water and sanitation service delivery models. He will also strengthen WaterAid’s sanitation to the urban sector.

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Nigeria requires more than 120 million dollars (about N14 billion) to provide 62 million citizens access to basics anitation and hygiene by 2015.

The statistics were provided by the UNICEF”D” Field Office in Bauchi in response to anational survey on sanitation and hygieneundertaken by the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN). The target is in line with the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on sanitation.

According to the UN agency, the country alsoneeds to build more than eight million toiletsbefore 2015 to achieve sustainable sanitation and hygiene.

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Imo State Bureau for Sanitation and Transport has between October 2007 and March 2008, carted away an estimated 724 metric tons of refuse, even as the body has declared its intention to increase the tempo on daily basis.

The Special Adviser (SA) to the Governor on Sanitationand transport, Chief Willie Amadi, who stated this during a ministerial briefing in Owerri, also said that this singular duty has been pursued vigorously with a view to meeting the accepted environmental standard in the country.

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Daily Trust (Abuja), Posted to the web 25 April 2008, Abdul Hassan

As health experts explore how to make the Nigerian society healthy, one worrisome impediment is the common act of open defecation.

The practice, hitherto restricted to the rural areas, is now a common sight in the urban centres. In Abuja, the nation’s capital for instance, it is not unusual to see adults stooping by the roadside and passing excreta, oblivious of motorists and passersby. (…)

Read all:   AllAfrica.com    and Daily Trust

Minister of state for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. James Akpanudoedehe, yesterday told the six local government chairmen in the FCT that he was not satisfied with their performance in the area of sanitation just as he enjoined them to make relative improvement to ensure that Abuja maintains its standard as a world class city.   (…)

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Tuesday, Apr 8, 2008

The federal government has been called upon to declare a state of emergency on environmental sanitation in the country. This is in view of the deteriorating sanitary standards of the country’s urban and rural areas and the glaring failure of curative health services. This is one of the recommendations contained in the communiqué issued at the end of the 41st Annual National Conference/Scientific Workshop of the Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria (EHOAN) at Yenagoa, Bayelsa State recently.  (…)

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