By Jude Njoku (With agency reports)

Nigeria, according to report by the Water and Sanitation Program, WSP, loses an estimated N455b ($3b) annually to poor sanitation. WSP is a multi donor partnership administered by the World Bank.

According to the report which analysed the economic impacts of poor sanitation in Nigeria, this staggering loss translates to the equivalent of N3,200 (US$20) per person in Nigeria per year or 1.3% of the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Residents of Amukoko crossing the canal that links it with Sari-Iganmu

“The total costs of poor sanitation contained in the report are likely to be a significant under estimate, as several other economic impacts (such as funeral costs, water pollution costs, epidemic outbreak costs, loss of income from tourism, impairment in intellectual and cognitive development of children, and loss of income from materials that should have recycled) have been excluded due to lack of data,” the report which was written by Babatope Babalobi in eWash noted.

It observed that access to improved water and sanitation is generally a major challenge in Nigeria, and the country ranks among the bottom 25 countries worldwide in terms of water and sanitation coverage.

The WSP report which was published July 2011explained that about 70 million Nigerians use unsanitary or shared latrines, 32 million use no latrines at all or defecate in the open, and 25 percent of the poorest of the population are ten times more likely to practise open defecation than the richest.

“Open defecation cost Nigeria $1b per year – yet eliminating the practice would require less than 6.5 million latrine to be built and used”, the report noted. A breakdown of the economic impacts of poor sanitation in Nigeria as contained in the report reveals that US$43 million is lost annually each year in access time as each person practicing open defecation spends almost 2.5days a year finding a private location to defecate leading to large economic losses.

“This cost falls disproportionately on women or caregivers who may spend additional time accompanying young children or sick elder relatives; and this cost is likely to be an underestimation as those without toilets, particularly women, will be obliged to find a private location for urination as well”, says the WSP .

“Another $2.5b is lost annually to premature death as an approximate 121,800 Nigerians, including 87,100 children under 5, die each year from diarrhoea – nearly 90% of which is directly attributed to poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).

In addition poor sanitation is a contributing factor – through its impact on malnutrition rates – to other leading causes of child mortality including malaria, and measles”, says the Water and Sanitation Program’s report. Another $13m is said to be lost each year due to productivity losses whilst sick or accessing healthcare.

This includes time absent from work or school due to diarrhoea disease, seeking treatment from a health clinic or hospital, and time spent caring for under 5’s suffering from diarrhoea or other sanitation-attributable diseases.

WSP report estimated that $191m is lost through expenditure in accessing health care annually. Diarrhoea diseases directly, and indirectly via malnutrition (and its consequences for other diseases such as respiratory infections and malaria) are all leading causes of morbidity.

Cost associated with health seeking behaviour includes consultation, medication, transport and in some cases hospitalisation – which place a heavy burden on households and government spending.