By Ikeugonna Eleke
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has said that many Nigerians lack basic hand washing facilities in their homes.
A WASH specialist from the Enugu Field Office of UNICEF, Mrs Rebecca Gabriel, stated this during a zonal press conference held in Enugu to commemorate this year’s Global Handwashing Day.
She identified lack of hand washing at critical times as some of the reason why people fell sick frequently.
Speaking on this year’s theme: ”Why clean hands are still important”; Gabriel frowned at the level of awareness among the people and the unavailability of facilities for hand washing.
She said: ‘Data shows that only 35 percent of schools in Nigeria have hand washing facilities, and that is not good enough. Imagine a child in nursery or primary school coming to eat lunch after playing during break without washing their hands because the facilities are not there.
‘Also, only eight percent of markets have hand washing facilities available, and you can imagine that. Up to 163million of Nigeria’s population, and that is about 83 percent, do not have access to basic hand washing services.
‘Government can begin to take action on these. They can provide for this in their budgets, especially now that states are preparing their budgets. Beyond the good roads that we seek, beyond the fancy things government plans to do for the people, they can budget for provision of hand washing facilities.’
She mentioned five critical times to wash the hands to include; before cooking, before eating, before feeding children, after changing children’s diapers and after using the convenience.
Mrs Gabriel added that washing the hands with soap could curtail respiratory diseases by 20 percent, and 30 percent in diarrhea. She encouraged all to always ensure they washed their hands.
Earlier, Mr Francis Nwaubani, the Managing Director of Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State (BCA), sponsors of the event, said it had partnered with UNICEF to educate Nigerians on health and hygiene for five years, and would continue to do.
