By ANTHONY C. OKOYE
THE environment provides the fundamental features on which human and indeed other lives are sustained. It would not be out of place therefore to summarise environment as the pivotal infrastructure upon which life and other activities towards its support are dependent.
This taken, the consciousness that man’s attitude to the environment affects its impact on his life therefore necessitates deliberate efforts from everyone in preserving, if not improving, the environment. Nigerian environment remains a resource that needs to be protected and effectively managed for the benefit of Nigerians – present and future. Nigeria, like many other developing countries across the globe, contends with enormous global and local environmental problems. Government has been making efforts to tackle most of the environmental issues both solely and in partnership with donor agencies, but surprisingly it is largely negligent in faecal sludge management (FSM). FSM refers to the collection, transportation, storage, treatment and safe end disposal or constructive use of faecal sludge. It is noteworthy that while Nigeria has an aggregate water and sanitation policy in place, safe excreta disposal is still no institution’s core responsibility.
Water and sanitation services are devolved to States’ Local Government Agencies. However, studies show that lack of practical autonomy, budget limitations, and poor managerial capacity, have hampered the ability of the Local Government Agencies to effectively deliver these services. There is no state in Nigeria with a coordinated structure of managing faecal sludge, except the FCT perhaps. Majority of the cities in Nigeria rely on informal services for excreta disposal with limited involvement and oversight from government. The collection and transportation of sludge are executed by mostly unprofessional private interests. Disposal sites are often poorly located and frequently shabbily supervised (if at all) by the local authorities. Most states seem to care less what becomes of faecal wastes they generate. They are indifferent to disposal sites, so do not insist on designated locations for FS disposal. Not any municipality’s priority! Hence, the sector suffers inadequate planning and poor financing. Faecal wastes are therefore indiscriminately disposed in water bodies, bushes or in gullies.
Unfortunately, without a safe place to dump the sludge, merely transporting it away from the households only relocates the sludge to imminent epidemic hatching sites. No gainsaying the urgent necessity for sludge treatment plants and sludge reuse schemes to institute and ensure a complete and effective sanitation value chain in handling an otherwise horrendous tendency. Linda Strande posits that ‘effective management of FS systems entails transactions and interactions among a variety of people and organizations from the public, private and civil society in every step in the service chain, from the household user, to collection and transport companies, operators of treatment plants and the final end user of treated sludge.’ This is a far cry from what is obtainable in Nigeria.
Human excreta has been implicated in the transmission of many infectious diseases including cholera, typhoid, infectious hepatitis, polio, cryptosporidiosis, and ascariasis. It is officially held that most of these diseases cause 115 deaths every hour in Africa alone. According to WHO and UNICEF one in five children dies from diarrhea-related diseases. This translates to more casualties than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. The health impact of inadequate sanitation leads to a number of financial and economic costs including direct medical cost associated with treating sanitation related illnesses and lost income through reduced or lost productivity; and the government cost of providing health services. A lot of these sanitation related minuses have been reported severally in many parts of the country and the current indiscriminate FS disposal is no doubt compounding the issues.
It is true that generally speaking, sanitation across the globe has been miserably inadequate and the world is far from reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target for sanitation, but Nigeria’s MDGs’ 2013 report indicating that the country’s performance on sanitation over the previous four years has been an overall downward trend from 53.80% in 2008 to 33.70% in 2012 is most bothersome. This is unacceptable! It surely requires an urgent professional attention and redirection of government energy towards wholesome results. Enhanced access to improved toilet is not an end itself. Donor agencies and government mostly concentrate on the provision of the sanitation facility without paying attention to the management of the faecal waste. Management of faecal sludge is so critical in environmental considerations else the essence of the greater component of our sanitation project might soon degenerate to naught. If Anambra State leverages on the recent recognition of Her Excellency, Chief Mrs Ebelechukwu Obiano, the wife of Governor Willie Obiano, as an environment friendly First Lady by EU and UNICEF, it might be blazing the trail in FSM at least in the metropolitan settings in the state. Her NGO, Caring Family Enhancement Initiative: CAFE, which has environmental issues as part of its interests informed the renowned world bodies (EU and UNICEF) consenting to partner with her in tackling sanitation and other sundry issues in parts of the state.
As contingent attraction of Her Excellency’s nomination by these bodies as WASH Ambassador, the state might well be privileged with FSM initiative thereby setting agenda for other states in Nigeria.
All tiers of government are hereby enjoined to pull their resources together in not only sensitizing their citizens on the impending danger of unsystematic FSM; they should take adequate proactive measures to forestall the looming devastation that unhindered management of faecal wastes portends.
.Dr. Okoye writes from Department of Environmental Management, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka ([email protected])