Although there are no laws to the effect, many states across Nigeria have restrictions on movement between 7 am and 10 am every last Saturday of the month. This movement restriction is so that people can stay at home, clean their surroundings and take adequate care of their environment. Some states on the other hand have a specific day of the week selected for environmental sanitation. But who stays home to do all of that again?
Over the years, this movement restriction has become relaxed so that people often go about their usual business in the hours expected for cleaning. Even for some, those hours are used to get a couple of extra hours of sleep before setting out for the day. Only a tangible few still comply with the sanitation rules.
On these Saturday mornings, the familiar sight is a closed market rather than a cleaning one, while waste management agencies clear the roadsides of bags of dirt that are often replaced in no time. Where has all of these led us? To a country at risk of itself.
Environmental sanitation has become a prominent issue that requires attention and more enactments if the Nigerian populace is to be safe and healthy. Citizens suffer from a high rate of water-borne diseases because of the lack of proper sanitation and the absence of sanitation measures that protect them.
Public sensitisation and campaigns often fall on deaf ears. Most people practice whatever they were instructed to do for a while, to go back to their usual ways. A general lackadaisical attitude to the environment has been adopted as people think it heals itself. People dump refuse in gutters in the hopes that the rain washes it away to wherever, and with no care that the content could block waterways.
They leave refuse at the roadside, forgetting that the pungent smell it emanates with time affects them too. Forgetting that the flies and other vectors can cause havoc, they practice open defecation and a poor sewage management system giving these vectors a good place to thrive.
Already Nigerians are suffering the repercussion of these actions, but one can only hope that they are no greater than they currently are. Just in the month of May, cholera broke out in Bauchi, killing about 20 people and leaving 300 hospitalised.
Cholera is a disease known to strike in places with bad water supply, poor sanitation and hygiene and poor sewage disposal systems. It is transmitted through the consumption of contaminated food and water.
Nigeria has had its fair share of battling cholera in the not so distant past- 2018/2019. There were over 43,000 cases of the transmittable diseases and about 1000 deaths. The severe disease rocked 20 states and left many mourning. But has any major difference been made so far?
Additionally, Nigeria is not only losing citizens to the repercussions of poor hygiene and sanitation, but it also costs money. According to UNICEF, Nigeria loses about 1.3% of its GDP annually due to inadequate water supply and sanitation.
For Nigeria to stop losing its citizens and its economy to preventable issues, it is pertinent that every sector takes responsibility and works together for hygiene and sanitation.
The government should continue to enact laws and encourage the established environmental agencies to do their job. They should pay them salaries as at when due, provide a suitable toilet and sewage system to environments that lack them and have strict policies to punish offenders. The government should also adopt an affordable and effective system of waste disposal and management.
NGOs should organise routine talks and environmental campaigns, teach people about their environment and maintain it best. Rather than make it a culture to come out every World Environmental Day, a more suitable structure should be created to see to it that people are regularly enlightened and actively participating.
Rather than close markets during sanitation hours, market leaders should see to it that stall owners clean. Only traders should be allowed access to the market at those times for the sole purpose of cleaning.
Finally, citizens should take responsibility for their health. They should avoid dumping refuse by the roadside and open defecation.
At the end of the day, any endemic disease would affect individuals in that area. Therefore, each person should take a stand in taking care of their environment.
Mariam Hamzat is an Environmentalist. You can reach her via [email protected]
