In Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, a remote community is battling waterborne diseases due to unavailability of clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene facility.
Womio, a small community in Sabo Anagada, Gwagwalada Area Council, has a population of over 3,000. The locals get water from a village stream which they use for drinking, cooking and other household chores.
Open defecation is a norm in the community as villagers defecate in nearby bushes due to unavailability of toilet facility.
Hannatu Ismail, a married woman with four children, shares experience of how she gets water, saying her children usually go to fetch water from the stream early in the morning, a situation which made them go to school late or even stay at home.
“If you just enter the area you will see feaces everywhere, we don’t have water, we fetch from the stream which is mostly dirty.
“When you enter the community, you will see feaces everywhere which attract mosquitoes and flies that cause malaria and cholera respectively,” she said.
According to a 2019 survey by the National Bureau of Statistics, only nine per cent of the population have access to complete basic WASH services and those living in rural areas are two times more disadvantaged than those in urban areas.
In another report, it says approximately 60 million Nigerians were living without access to basic drinking water, 80 million people had no access to improved sanitation facilities, while 167 million have no access to basic handwashing facilities.
It is a well known fact that unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene affects good health and this plays a crucial role in spreading diseases like cholera, diarrhea and typhoid.
The village head of Womio, Muhammadu Haruna, confirmed incidence of disease outbreak in his community.
WASH intervention in Womio
Womio village had two boreholes commissioned by the government, but they are not functioning due to some fault they developed while in use. This situation made members of the community to resort back to their old ways of getting water: the stream.
The long practice of open defecation in the community has become a norm. They do not build toilets in their houses; they only find a space they can take their bath and ease themselves in bushes.
Due to the critical condition of Womio community, a non-governmental organisation, Rockians Medical Foundation, rehabilitated a hand pump borehole and constructed a four-unit toilet.
Martins Marvin, Chairman of the foundation, stated that the plight of not having clean water and decent sanitation and hygiene facility led to the foundation’s intervention in the community.
“We were able to restructure their already existing borehole. We did not stop there, we also had to take it further by strengthening the WASH practices in this village.
“So, we had to also raise a sanitation facility, public toilet because we noticed that all of them did not have private facilities that they are using in their homes,” he said.
Building toilets with bottles
The four-unit public toilet built by the foundation was not an ordinary toilet. It was built using pet bottles filled with sand which was used as building blocks for the project.
“We call it the ‘CLEAR’ village project, meaning; Community Learn Environmental Awareness and Recycling, because it’s not just a project that will help to strengthen the WASH practices in the village.
“It is by providing a safe and healthy space for women to carry out their extra hygiene and also to help eradicate open defecation in the village,” he said.
He said that community members supported the project by helping in filling the pet bottles with sand and sweeping the premises.
Villagers can now access WASH facility
After a period of walking long distance to get water, the unhygienic nature of the water and the practice of open defecation, the people of Womio can now access clean drinking water and ease themselves in proper toilet facility.
Haruna stated that since the hand pump was rehabilitated, his people have been enjoying relatively good health.
He added that members of the community as well as visitors from neighbouring village come to ease themselves in the toilets.
Hannatu, whose children went to school late and sometimes miss school due to unavailability of portable clean water, are now going to school early and even had breakfast before going.
“My children and I don’t need to go to the stream to get water, I can now access clean water to cook, drink and do other house chores .
“Now my children don’t get sick as frequent as before and the feaces we usually see everywhere have reduced due to the use of the newly constructed toilets,” she said.
Sustaining the intervention
Lack of maintenance attitude towards a given project or intervention in a community has been the major reason some interventions fail.
This made Rokian Medical Foundation to sensitise the villagers on the need to properly maintain and take care of the toilets while also educating them on the importance of taking ownership of the project.
“We ensure that we engaged the community leaders to educate them on step-by-step process of keeping the facility clean.
“We urged the village head, youth and women leaders to come up with a roster for cleaning the toilets. The foundation will be conducting routine checks in the community to ensure that the facility is clean,” he said.
The village head explained that whenever a facility gets faulty, he would call his people and inform them on the need to make contributions so that they can make repairs.
He said that anyone who wanted to use the toilets must come with water for cleaning while a roster for cleaning the toilet is on ground.
Ease cut short
As people of Womio celebrate having clean water supply from the rehabilitated hand pump, their happiness is cut short one more time. This is because the only source of clean water in the community keeps developing fault after a month or two’s use.
The villagers attributed the incessant fault to over use, saying it is the only functional pump serving the whole community.
Mr Samuel Nuhu, the youth leader of the community, said the single hand pump was not enough for a community of more than 3,000 people.
He added that whenever the pump gets spoilt, people suffer to get water with some going back to the streams while others buy water.
According to him, residents of the area alone cannot afford to contribute for the maintenance of the facility.
He urged government and other non-governmental organisations to bring more boreholes that would reach everyone.
Women leader of the community, Hajara Adamu, who commended the foundation for its effort, stated that the hand pump has developed fault for the third time since its repair.
She said that this situation has led the villagers to buy water from a neighbouring village at exorbitant price.
“We are back to square one, suffering again; one bucket is N100, what about those that don’t have money? How will they cope?
“We will appreciate it if more boreholes would be constructed to ease our suffering,” she said.
Room for improvement
The four-unit toilet constructed has helped reduced open defecation in the community. However, residents of Womio want more.
The village head of Womio commended Rockians Medical Foundation for the project, saying it has helped both men and women access toilet facility.
He urged government and other stakeholders to assist them build more toilets, adding that some residents’ houses were far from the toilet; a situation that is making them go back to open defecation.
Similarly, Nuhu added that water was not connected to the toilets, saying that the villagers had to get water from the pump before using the toilets.
However, the chairman of the foundation stated that inadequate finance played a major in limitations of the project.
He explained that members of the foundation tasked themselves and volunteer with the little they could get in ensuring people have access to clean water and their health improved.
By Aisha Gambo, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
