Diarrhoea kills 500,000 children daily- Igbuzor

Abuja – Nigeria ranks second after China in child mortality record just as diarrhoea claims 500,000 children worldwide daily, Dr. Otive Igbuzor, the Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, has said.

Igbuzor said this on Wednesday in Abuja at the opening ceremony of the staff training on Community-Led Total Sanitation and Waste Management.

Community-Led Total Sanitation is a UNICEF-assisted project aimed at contributing to the improvement of environmental health by addressing behavioural change related to sanitation and waste management  by promoting community participation.

“The fact is that children die every single day in Nigeria. The rate is only second to China and it is unacceptable,” Igbuzor said.

He noted that the proportion of the Nigerian population with access to basic sanitation was still very low, adding that  many people were dying from diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery and cholera.

“These diseases occur because people defecate in bushes around their houses and when rain falls, it washes it into the river and the water is consumed by individuals,” he said.

He noted that the importance of environmental health was reflected in the MDG 7 on ensuring environmental sustainability.

According to him, the goal targets integrating the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources.

It also targets halving by 2015, the proportion of people without access to safe water and basic sanitation and by 2020 to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.

The executive director noted that the global community was still far from meeting MDG 7.

“Globally, there are challenges to meeting goal 7.  Five years to MDG deadline, the world is still a long way from meeting the sanitation target.”

“With better implementation of various policy frameworks and plans for water, sanitation, environment and slum upgrading, Nigeria will be on track to achieve MDG 7,” Igbuzor said.

He said that the CLTS project would focus on sanitation and waste management in Kuyizhi community.

Kuyizhi is a small settlement of 50 households with a population of 400 persons in the Kuje Area Council of the  FCT.

The News agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls the organisation last year focused on the Durunmi and Ruwan Fulani communities both in the FCT.

He noted that diarrhoea incidence in the two communities had reduced drastically as they had imbibed proper disposal of their waste.

He further said that regular inspection of the communities in partnership with the Abuja Environmental Protection Board aided the success recorded.

Igbuzor urged governments at all levels and community leaders to prioritise sanitation as the lack of it was more deadly than malaria and HIV.

Also speaking, Mrs Atinuke Taiwo, the Coordinator, Canada fund for Local Initiatives of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), said that the project was aimed at securing the future for children and youths.

She also said that the project was aimed at promoting social, economic and technical development, adding that small- scale projects would be  supported to achieve the desired development.

Atinuke thanked the centre for  collaborating with CIDA and pledged the support of the agency to ensure the success of the project. (NAN)