By YANGE IKYAA
WaterAid Nigeria has called Nigeria’s minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, to prioritize basic hygiene for healthcare facilities as part of the COVID-19 pandemic recovery plan. The demand comes as health ministers from around the world prepare to attend the World Health Assembly, against a backdrop of international struggles to bring the virus under control.
Globally, 785 million people in the world, about 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. As a result of this, around 310,000 children under five die every year from diarrheal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation, representing around 800 children a day, or one child every two minutes.
In Nigeria, only 9% of the population have access to combined water, sanitation and hygiene services, and 60 million people, about 30% of the population, lack access to clean water, with 112 million people, or 56% of the population, lacking decent toilets and 46 million people, or 23% of the population, practicing open defecation.
Also, 167 million people in Nigeria (84% of the population) lack basic handwashing facilities, only 14% of schools have combined water, sanitation and hygiene services, and just 4% of healthcare facilities have combined water, sanitation and hygiene services, with only 14% of parks and markets having combined water, sanitation and hygiene services.
Yet, WaterAid says that every £1 invested in water and toilets returns an average of £4 in increased productivity, just as £15 can provide one person with clean water.
WaterAid works 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.
Two years ago, the World Health Assembly’s 194 members unanimously agreed to ensure universal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene in all hospitals and other health facilities. Since then, the pandemic has highlighted just how vital these basic services are in controlling infection.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, has described soap and water as akin to personal protective equipment and absolutely fundamental for stopping the spread of COVID-19.
However, in Nigeria, about 17% of healthcare centres do not have access to a water source, and four in five healthcare facilities (80%) still lack somewhere to wash hands with soap to protect patients and healthcare workers from catching and spreading deadly infections. In the world’s poorest countries, half of all hospitals and clinics have no clean water on site.
When the World Health Assembly delegations last met in person, they passed a resolution to ensure that all healthcare facilities had water, sanitation, and hygiene. And yet, the data shows that across the world, almost 2 billion people depend on healthcare facilities without basic water services, putting them at greater risk of catching COVID-19 and other deadly diseases.
One in four healthcare facilities globally are still without clean water on site, one in three still have nowhere to wash hands where patients are treated and one in ten still lack decent toilets.
The resolution has not translated to realistic actions in Nigeria either. National data shows that 26% of healthcare facilities in the country do not have access to toilets on site and only 4% of healthcare facilities in Nigeria have access to combined water, sanitation, and hygiene services.
Last December, WHO estimated that, to bring clean water, handwashing facilities and decent toilets to healthcare centres in the poorest countries would cost $3.6 billion, which equates to around an hour and a half’s worth of what the whole world spent in a year on the Covid-19 response.
Furthermore, research has shown that money spent on water, sanitation and hygiene within healthcare is a ‘best buy’ for any country, producing a fifty per cent return on investment.
This is because such expenditure helps to slow the spread of antimicrobial resistance, the so-called superbugs; prevent the spread of hospital infections, and reduce maternal and new-born deaths.
WaterAid insists that sustainable access to water, sanitation and hygiene is a cost-effective measure that guarantees the fight against COVID-19 and future pandemics. This, it said, will realize lasting health outcomes in Nigeria, enabling people to reach their full potential.
Evelyn Mere, country director, WaterAid Nigeria said “two years ago, at the World Health Assembly, global leaders resolved to prioritize water, sanitation and hygiene in all healthcare facilities. Now is the time for them to make good on those promises.
“Millions of people are at risk of contracting diseases because they use or work in a healthcare facility which lacks basic water services. In the twenty first century this simply shouldn’t be and needn’t be the case.
“The cost of investing to ensure every health centre and hospital in the poorest countries has a reliable water supply, working toilets and good hygiene may seem high but the benefits of such an investment far outweigh the cost.
“Trying to create a robust pandemic preparedness and response plan without ensuring that every healthcare centre has clean water and the ability to keep its patients, frontline health workers and premises clean is like building a fortress with a gaping hole where the door should be. Unless leaders wake up to this, more lives will be needlessly lost.”
