By Edoamaowo Udeme-Abuja
For decades, the people of Kwi community of Dariji in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau state, practiced open defecation. No pit toilets and having a water cistern would have been akin to a five star hotel treatment. To make matters worst, the same field used for open defecation harbors an open well water which serves the whole community.
To the Kwi community, an idea of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) wold have elicited laughter, A community of approximately 300 inhabitants, waterborne and airborne disease were common. Davos Chollom, one of the residents said sickness was rampant and “The only Primary Health facility is about 3km from the settlement while a General hospital is 7km”
Kangyang Jugu, a 35 year old mother of two says since she has been married to that community over a decade ago, she has never used a toilet facility except to openly defecate in the fields.
“There were a lot of sick children” says Esther Rwang, a headmistress of LGEA Primary School Dariji “If we needed cleaner water, the children will trek for long distances to get another well water which was not even clean, some either came late or missed school while some dropped out”
11 year old Vera Danjuma a primary 6 pupil considered to be quite brilliant almost dropped out because “We used to wake up to look for water and by the time we return, we were late for school” This affected her education “I missed attending school most days”. She added
Asking them about personal hygiene will be an understatement as Joshua Davos, 13, a primary six pupil says he never knew why he should wash hands after defecating when drinking water was even difficult to get.
“I never knew how to wash my hands after defecating, we didn’t even use leaves to clean up, we still went to that open well to get water to wash up that is if it has not dried up”
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene WASH would have been farfetched for the people of Dariji of intervention hasn’t showed face, just when all hope was lost, UNICEF came to the rescue.
According to the UNICEF Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS) report, 3 out of 774 Local Governments are Open Defecation (OD) free.
The three Local Governments are Worji and Dass in Bauchi State and Obanliku in Cross River State.
Astonishing 771 Local government in Nigeria still practicing open defecation. A lot of awareness needs to be created by the Federal and State government so that Nigeria can be free from OD in 2025
Mr Drissa Yeo, the UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Specialist, noted that “1 gram of feaces has 10 million viruses, 1 million bacteria and 1000 parasites” That explains the rate of incessant illnesses and avoidable deaths in Darigi community
The UNICEF Chief of (WASH) Mr Zaid Jurji said that “Only 10% of Nigerians have access to clean and potable water while 25 % practice Open Defecation and Diarrhea is the second killer of children as it amounts to 88% of cases in the world.
The need for Federal and State government to invest in addressing Water and Sanitation in Nigeria is imperative as it has keyed into EU/UNICEF WASH programme
“WASH is very important to the life of a child, the Sustainable Development Goal 6 clearly emphasizes the importance of clean water and sanitation,” Olumide Osanyinpeju, Deputy Director, Child Rights Information Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture Abuja
“Research has shown that regular hand-washing with soap can reduce the incident of diarrhea, a disease which can be deadly to children,” he added.
EU/UNICEF intervention by providing two pipe-borne water sources, for both the community and the school, well dug out toilets and training on WASH has helped the community
“Now we have more enrollment of school children and less sick ones and personal hygiene has increased for all of us thanks to UNICEF” Esther Rwang said excitedly.
“Children resume as early as 7 am daily since they don’t suffer to get water, and they concentrate in their studies” she added
“I wish our government will intervene by providing Primary Health Care for us in this community, the only accessible ones are several kilometers away” added David Chollom
Children were observed using the flowing water and soap and taking time out to wash their hands after using toilet, if this culture continues, there will be less water and airborne disease in Kwi community.
The hope is that Nigeria should wake up to its responsibilities and support this foreign intervention so that they could be counted among the countries that will achieve the SDGs.
