160m Nigerians Lack Basic Sanitation, Say UNICEF, WHO

Dike Onwuamaeze

A joint report by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) titled: “Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Africa 2000 to 2020: Five Years into the SDGs,” has shown that Nigeria leads the rest of Africa on open defecation and non-availability of basic hygiene services in 2020.

The report, which was released recently  by the two United Nations’ agencies, presented a snapshot of regional estimates for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) in households, schools and health care facilities in the African Union and assessed progress of five years into the SDG period (2015-2020).

It added that “achieving SDG WASH targets in Africa will require a dramatic acceleration in current rates of progress.”

The report stated that 160 million Nigerians lacked basic sanitation services between 2015 and 2020, which were the years reviewed by the report.

According to the report, only 43 per cent of Nigerian population had access to safely managed sanitation services while 33 per cent could practice hand washing within the period under review.

It also stated that only 22 per cent of Nigerian population had access to safely managed drink water while 56 per cent and 6.0 per cent had access to basic and surface water respectively.

The report also showed that 19 per cent of Nigerian population practiced open defecation in 2020 while 31 per cent and 12 per cent had access to safely managed and basic sanitation respectively.

A breakdown of the report on hygiene in 2020 showed that 33 per cent of Nigerians enjoyed basic hygiene services while 36 per cent and 30 per cent had either limited or no facility respectively.

Regarding open defecation, the report noted that, “208 million people in Africa still practiced open defecation in 2020” with Nigeria topping the chart of “countries in Africa with the largest number of people practicing open defecation in 2020.”

It identified Nigeria, Ethiopia, Niger, Madagascar and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as the top five countries in Africa with largest number of people practicing open defecation within the period under review.

Nigeria topped the chart with 38 million people and followed by Ethiopia’s 20 million people while Niger, 16 million; Madagascar, 12 million and DRC with 11 million people. 

The report further showed that 839 million people in Africa lacked basic hygiene services in 2020 while three out of five people in Africa (representing 60 per cent) lacked basic hygiene services in 2020. 

Nigeria also topped the chart with 138 million people for “countries in Africa with the largest number of people who did not use a basic hygiene service in 2020. Nigeria was followed by Ethiopia with 106 people while DRC, Kenya and Sudan had 72 million, 39 million and 38 million people respectively. 

It said that “in Africa there are large disparities in access to basic hygiene services between and within countries,” adding that “only two out of five schools in Africa had basic hygiene services in 2019 (while) less than half the health care facilities in Africa had basic water services in 2019.”

Key messages that were contained in the report said that “in Africa, 39 per cent of the population used safely managed drinking water, 27 per cent used safely managed sanitation and 37 per cent used basic hygiene in 2020.

“Achieving the 2030 SDG targets will require a 12 times increase in current rates of progress on safely managed drinking water, 20 times increase for safely managed sanitation and a 42 times increase for basic hygiene services.”

The report showed that in urban areas in Africa, two out of five people still lacked safely managed drinking water while two out of three people lacked safely managed sanitation, and half the population lacked basic hygiene services.

But, “in rural areas, three out of four people lack safely managed drinking water, three out of four people lack safely managed sanitation, and seven out of 10 lack basic hygiene services,” the report said.

It noted that between 2000 and 2020, the population of Africa has increased from 800 million to 1.3 billion. Out of this number, “500 million people have gained access to at least basic drinking water and 290 million gained access to at least basic sanitation services. But 411 million people still lack even a basic drinking water service, 779 million lack basic sanitation services (including 208 million who still practice open defecation), and 839 million still lack basic hygiene services.”

The report also observed that “significant inequalities persist between and within countries, including between urban and rural, between sub-national regions and between the richest and the poorest.”