Ahead of the 2019 general elections, WaterAid Nigeria has urge electorates to use their votes to demand for their right to clean water and decent toilets.
The organisation’s Country Representative, Dr Chichi Aniagolu-Okoye, stated this during the Vote4Wash Campaign at the Wuse Market in Abuja on Thursday.
Aniagolu-Okoye, who was represented by the Head of People and Organization Development, Manaseh Igyuh, lamented that 60 million Nigerians are without clean water, over 120 million are without access to decent toilet and another 48 million defecate in the open.
She insisted that it is duty of all eligible voters to seize the opportunity to hold electoral candidates to account during and after the elections.
According to her, with over 60,000 deaths of under-five children annually due to Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) related diseases, Nigerians cannot afford to ignore the urgency of WASH action in the country and that a vote for clean water is a vote for good health, education and improved livelihood.
While urging electoral candidates to prioritize WASH activities, she said, “We ask that electoral candidates seeking the vote of Nigerians to heed calls to improve the well-being of Nigerians by providing universal access to clean water and decent toilets and ensuring that no child dies a preventable death because of alack of these basic but yet vital and fundamental services.”
She added that at the current rate of progress, Nigeria may not be able to achieve its promise of providing safe water and toilets to Nigerians by 2030 as the percentage of the population with access to basic sanitation continues to drop steadily.
“It is sad that a country of our status cannot provide these basic life-saving services to its citizens. Nearly 60,000 children under the age of five die of WASH related diseases in Nigeria every year. Sub-Saharan Africa ranks lowest in the world for access to improved drinking water and sanitation and that is linked, of course, to the region’s under-five mortality rate which is one of the highest in the world,” she said.
Aniagolu-Okoye noted that Vote4WASH campaign is a call on all electoral candidates to ensure that water, sanitation and hygiene promotion is given the priority it deserves with ambitious universal access targets on WASH for households as well as schools, health facilities and other public places.
Also, the Chief Executive of Connected Development (CODE), Mr. Hamzat Lawal, urged electorates to prioritise demanding for actions in issues affecting the youths, who are the majority of the nation’s population.
