World Water Day: 3.6m Nigerians Lack Access To Water, Sanitation Services

The United Nations International Children’s Education Fund, UNICEF, has said over 3.6 million people lack access to potable water, sanitation and hygiene services in Nigeria.

This report was disclosed by UNICEF’s Representative in the country, Mr Mohamed Fall, on Friday in a statement to commemorate World Water Day today, March 22.

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With the 2019 theme, “Living no one behind,” fall said carrying about 1.1 millions internally displaced people along is a challenge as many of them are out-of-reach in remote areas still impacted by conflict.

“About 800,000 people are in hard-to-reach areas and 79 per cent of these are children and women.

“In Nigeria, conflict has created huge challenges for people living in the Northeast of the country, where violence has affected their ability to access water and sanitation, leading to diseases such as cholera.

“In the Northeast, 5,365 people were affected by cholera, with 61 dying in 2017, while 12,643 people were affected in 2018 and 175 died of the disease.”

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Meanwhile, the UNICEF Executive Director, Ms Henrietta Fore added that children below the age of 15 are three times more likely to die from diarrhoea in countries affected by protracted conflict due to inability to access WASH facilities.

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