The risk factors with unsafe drinking water supply, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene are second in contributing to the global burden of disease: Women and children are mostly victims. In northern Nigeria, only 30% of the population has access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.
There are approximately 4 billion cases of diarrhea yearly causing 1.35 million deaths, almost 1.2 million children under the age of five, about 15% of all under 5 deaths in developing countries.
An estimated 88% of this burden is attributable to unsafe drinking water supply, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. According to UNICEF, about 2.4 billion worldwide lack access to improved sanitation while over 663 million do not have access to an improved water source. Sadly, most of these people live in Asia and Africa.
In Nigeria, 63 million people lack access to safe water and over 46 million still practice open defecation, making her one of the countries with the highest number of people still engaged in the act.
Inaccessibility to clean water and improved sanitation facilities; improper feeding practices; hand washing without soap before food preparation and after defecation results in the frequent occurrence of water-borne diseases, especially in children under age five, nursing mothers and pregnant women.
