Governments must treat water, sanitation as human rights priorities –Emelonye

By Zika Bobby

International human rights scholar, Professor Uchenna Emelonye, has called on African governments to treat access to water and sanitation as urgent human rights priorities, warning that women and girls suffer the most when such systems fail.

Emelonye made the call while speaking at the African Union Pre-Summit Consultative Meeting on Gender Mainstreaming, held under the theme: “Advancing Gender-Responsive Water and Sanitation Policies for Sustainable Development in Africa.”

Drawing particular attention to Nigeria, the professor stated that the country’s water and sanitation crisis goes beyond infrastructure challenges and has become a serious gender justice emergency.

He stressed that inadequate access to safe water and sanitation is already undermining the dignity, health and education of girls across the country.

According to him, even in major urban centres such as Abuja and most state capitals, reliable public running water remains scarce, forcing many households to depend on water tankers, private boreholes and other unregulated sources.

He warned that the fragile water access experienced in urban and peri-urban areas likely masks even more severe shortages in rural, sub-urban and conflict-affected communities where infrastructure is weaker and services are often non-existent.

Focusing on the education sector, Emelonye noted that although some schools enjoy slightly better access to water than their host communities, sanitation deficits remain widespread.

Citing recent national Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) statistics, he revealed that only 30 percent of schools in Nigeria have basic sanitation services, while just 37 percent have access to basic water supply.

“These figures show that safe and hygienic learning environments are still the exception rather than the norm in Nigeria,” he said.

He further highlighted the disproportionate impact of these shortcomings on adolescent girls, pointing out that only eight percent of schools in the country have toilet facilities equipped with menstrual hygiene amenities.

According to him, the absence of such facilities directly affects girls’ school attendance, participation and privacy, exposing them to health risks and, in many cases, forcing them out of school.

“When a Nigerian girl is forced to manage menstruation without safe and private sanitation, that is not a minor inconvenience; it is a rights violation and an education barrier. A development agenda that ignores sanitation is incomplete,” he declared.

He urged federal and state authorities to treat water and sanitation in schools as a core national education and gender-equity priority rather than a peripheral infrastructure issue.

The scholar called on the Federal Ministry of Education and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation to introduce enforceable national standards for safe and girl-friendly sanitation facilities in all secondary schools.

He also advocated dedicated gender-responsive funding to address the crisis, as well as the formal integration of menstrual hygiene management into school health policies.

He emphasised the importance of establishing strong monitoring systems that track progress using sex-disaggregated data to ensure that policies translate into real improvements for girls and women.

He concluded that meaningful progress toward gender equality and sustainable development in Africa would remain elusive unless governments urgently address the fundamental right to water and sanitation.