UNICEF evolves strategy to combat water-borne diseases

UNICEF has decided to focus on improving supply of clean water, environmental sanitation and hygiene education throughout Nigeria to combat water-borne diseases. Jim Ackers, UNICEF's officer in charge of integrated growth and development in the Nigeria country office, told reporters on Tuesday that the new strategy aimed at eradicating river blindness (onchocerchiasis) and guinea worm infections. Guinea worm and onchocerchiasis are endemic water-borne diseases in certain parts of Africa's most populous country of more than 120 million people. UNICEF had decided to emphasise water and environmental sanitation after realising that the occurrence of diarrhoea, a major childhood killer in Nigeria, could decline by 15 percent if water quality was improved, Ackers said in the capital Abuja. Increasing the quantity of available water, he added, would lower the incidence of diarrhoea by 22 percent. In combination with improved hygience, the incidence could further drop by upto 35 percent while adding safe disposal of feaces would lower this by 40 percent. According to Ackers, the implementation of the water and environmental sanitation strategy will involve not only the federal, state and local government levels, but will also permeate local communities. To ensure programme coherence and coordination at all levels, all concerned stakeholders were engaged in preparing and reviewing a draft national sanitation policy. The federal government has also set up a National Sanitation Task Force to lead the implementation process, the official said. UNICEF and its partners have already conducted a rapid water quality need assessment across the country, and were now in the process of designing a pilot process for delivering quality water to the communities in need. They were now also making equipment, such as hand pumps and other standard accessories, creating quality control and assurance maintenance systems and supply chains; and improving capacity and partnership. So far some 4,972 schools across Nigeria have been provided with water and environmental sanitation facilities. These schools are the centres for imparting sanitation education and hygience awareness, the official said.