Diarrhoea kills 400 under-5 children daily –UNICEF

…says Nigeria among 5 top countries practisingopen defecation

United Nations International Children Emergency Fund, UNICEF, has said about 400 children under the age of five, die daily due to diarrhea-related diseases in the country.

This was revealed during a four days ‘National Stakeholders Workshop on Draft Hygiene Promotion Strategy’ in Abuja, organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the National Tax Group on Sanitation and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.

Expressing worry over the figure, Chief Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) UNICEF Nigeria, Kannan Nadar, noted that the deaths could be prevented if the right measures were employed to scale up establishment of basic sanitation facilities and awareness on proper hygiene and sanitation practices.

According to him, the disease was related to the consumption of contaminated water and unhygienic practices undertaken in the processes of food preparation and disposal of stools, given that children were more prone to infections and as a result could fall sick quickly.

The Chief WASH, however, maintained that the high number of diarrhearelated deaths recorded annually in the country could be reduced by half if the culture of hand-washing was inculcated among children from a tender age.

In a report made available by UNICEF, the analysis revealed that “As per WHO/UNICEF-led joint monitoring programme 2015 in Nigeria, only 29 per cent of the population have access to improved sanitation facilities, 34 per cent rural population still defecate in open and 30 per cent indulge in other unimproved sanitation.”

Nadar further lamented the rate of open defecation practice in the country, which he said has placed Nigeria among the top five countries in the world still engaged in unimproved hygiene as a result of low access to basic sanitation.