Benue, 5 others get N284mn from Heineken, WaterAid to tackle coronavirus, improve hygiene

By YANGE IKYAA

The Heineken Africa Foundation, WaterAid Nigeria, civil society organizations and the government have celebrated a seven-month project that expanded hygiene access for marginalized and vulnerable communities in Bauchi, Benue, Ekiti, Enugu, Kaduna and Oyo States.

The N284 million “Scale-Up Hygiene” project was aimed at complementing government’s efforts in reducing the spread of the coronavirus disease through large-scale hygiene promotion, and provision of handwashing facilities to support the practice of good hygiene in the states of intervention.

WaterAid is working to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. The international not-for-profit organization works in 28 countries to change the lives of the poorest and most marginalized people. Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 27 million people with clean water and 27 million people with decent toilets.

Despite the proven effectiveness of good hygiene to combat the spread of infectious diseases like Covid-19, millions of people in Nigeria do not have anywhere to wash their hands and lack the knowledge of how and why to wash hands properly. The lack of facilities and knowledge creates a higher risk of illness and disease transmission, including the spread of Covid-19, with adverse impact on health, education, gender equality, livelihoods and socio-economic development.

In Nigeria, only 9% of the population have access to combined water, sanitation and hygiene services, and 60 million people or 30% of the population, lack access to clean water. Also, 112 million people (56% of the population) lack decent toilets, and 46 million people (23% of the population) practice open defecation, while 167 million people (84% of the population) lack basic handwashing facilities.

Only 14% of schools have combined water, sanitation and hygiene services, with just 7% of healthcare facilities having combined water, sanitation and hygiene services in the country, which is Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy, where it is also estimated that only 14% of parks and markets have combined water, sanitation and hygiene services.

To help address some of these challenges, WaterAid implemented what it called the “Clean Family Campaign” in the six states of intervention, to motivate people towards practicing specific hygiene behaviours, such as handwashing with soap, social distancing, respiratory hygiene, use of clean water and use of clean toilets.

Under this project campaign, over 21,000,000 residents around Bauchi, Benue, Ekiti, Enugu, Kaduna and Oyo States and in Abuja were empowered with context-specific hygiene information and encouraged to practice good hygiene, using different promotional touchpoints, including national, state and community TV and radio stations.

Around 210 non-contact and inclusive handwashing facilities were installed in healthcare facilities, schools and public places to support the practice of good hygiene. Additionally, hygiene packs containing face masks and soap were distributed to 29,000 households and 7,200 people with disabilities in the states of intervention.

In addition to the large-scale hygiene promotion and the provision of hygiene facilities and kits, WaterAid also carried out advocacy to the government to integrate water, sanitation and hygiene services in national and state’s Covid-19 response plans and programmes. WaterAid says its advocacy has facilitated and continues to highlight the need to integrate WASH in health interventions targeted at tackling the coronavirus disease.

“While I am delighted that this project has successfully delivered on its objectives, the increasing number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is an indication that the journey of expanding hygiene access has not ended. It has only just begun. We must work to sustain and consolidate on the gains of the project and accelerate universal hygiene to WASH by 2030,” said Evelyn Mere, country director of WaterAid Nigeria.

She urged implementing civil society partners to continue to advocate for improved WASH services in their states and to promote citizen engagement to deliver on sustainable WASH services.

In her words, “I commend the efforts and commitments of our government partners in replicating and scaling up these facilities. We recognize Bauchi State’s provision of an additional 102 handwashing facilities, Ekiti State’s improvement of water access in 4 markets and Benue State’s contribution of NGN4 million which enabled an additional 6,000 hygiene packs to be provided to households.

“I want to encourage the governments of the states where we implemented the project to continue to prioritize hygiene access and to ensure increased investment in the WASH sector to cater to the needs of residents in their states. In addition to increasing allocation for the WASH sector, we must ensure that the allocated funds are targeted effectively to ensure a ripple effect resulting in better health, socio-economic, gender and education outcomes.

“We sincerely appreciate the Heineken Africa Foundation for the tremendous financial support received for the successful implementation of the project.”

According to Suzanne Giele, who is the general manager of HEINEKEN Africa Foundation, “water, sanitation and hygiene have been on our agenda for many years already, and I am happy that we have been able to scale up and accelerate our efforts in this field because handwashing with soap not only helps to protect against the spread of COVID-19 but also other infectious diseases. I am thrilled that together with WaterAid, we have been able to make a difference for communities during these very challenging times and after.”

She also said “it is crucial that we all continue to join hands to uphold the basic human rights to clean water, decent sanitation and hygiene for all, particularly for vulnerable communities, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, who continue to live without access to these basic essentials.

Globally, 785 million people in the world, or one in ten, do not have clean water close to home., while 2 billion people in the world, almost one in four, do not have a decent toilet of their own.

Around 310,000 children under five die every year from diarrhea diseases caused by poor water and sanitation. That’s around 800 children a day, or one child every two minutes. Yet, WaterAid data show that every £1 invested in water and toilets returns an average of £4 in increased productivity, and that just £15 can provide one person with clean water.

The HEINEKEN Africa Foundation was created in 2007 with the purpose to improve the health for people living in sub-Saharan Africa. Since then, the Foundation has committed over 10 million euros to 119 projects in 10 different countries.   It is a registered non-profit organization and a separate legal entity from the HEINEKEN Company. It is funded through an endowment fund from the HEINEKEN Company and regular contributions. It is governed by the board of trustees that bases their decisions upon the recommendation of the advisory board. The majority of the members of these two boards are external experts.

Over the years, the Foundation has built a strong expertise on mother and child care, as well as on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects.