The United
Nations Children’s Fund has said that Nigeria loses over 150,000 children from diarrhea
annually, largely caused by unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene practices, NaijaAgroNet gathered.
This revelation was made in a press
release by Doune Porter, Chief of Communication of the agency as the world observes October 15, as Global Handwashing Day.
In a survey which was carried out by
UNICEF in six states of Nigeria, it found that an average of 82 per cent of
people washed their hands before eating, while only 53 per cent out of the
total washed their hands with soap after defecation. Alarmingly, only about 14
per cent of people wash their hands with soap after cleaning a child’s
faeces.
Regular handwashing with soap
after using toilets, changing children’s nappies and before eating or handling
food saves more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention. It can
reduce deaths from diarrhea by almost half and deaths from acute respiratory
infections by one-quarter, NaijaAgroNet
reports.
To mark this year’s Global
Handwashing Day in Nigeria, UNICEF, with the Federal Ministry of Water
Resources, the National Task Group on Sanitation and other partners plans to
reach at least 10 million Nigerians this year through high profile handwashing
demonstrations in schools and communities, mass rallies, road shows, airing of
jingles on radio and television, and dissemination of handwashing messages on
U-Report, Facebook and Twitter.
NaijaAgroNet learnt that the eighth Global Handwashing Day
comes less than a month after the United Nations adopted the Sustainable
Development Goals, including hygiene for the first time in the global agenda.
One of the SDG targets is to achieve ‘access to adequate and equitable
sanitation and hygiene’ by 2030.
Global Head of UNICEF’s water,
sanitation and hygiene programmes ,Sanjay Wijesekera, said, “Along with
drinking water and access to toilets, hygiene – particularly handwashing with
soap – is the essential third leg of the stool holding up the Goal on water and
sanitation. From birth – when unwashed hands of birth attendants can transmit
dangerous pathogens – right through babyhood, school and beyond, handwashing is
crucial for a child’s health. It is one of the cheapest, simplest, most
effective health interventions we have.”
Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
