Poor Sanitation, A breeding Ground for Communicable Diseases.

Poor sanitation and it's attendant consequences tends to create and sustain an aura of various forms of communicable disease in Africa.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, slum infrastructure has remained inadequate as it is not government policy to support development in what are considered illegal informal settlements. Residents tamper with electricity and water connections, often resulting in clashes as security personnel are deployed to stop the connections.

According to experts, slum conditions may make the settlements a breeding ground for tomorrow's pathogens. Health problems such as malnutrition, diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid fever are already common, especially when water is mixed with industrial and sewage effluent.

"General cleanliness in the slums is not good at all. Even as we try our best to keep our individual compounds clean, some people litter our compounds with flying toilets," a Ketu residence of Lagos, Mrs Chinyere said. 

Progress towards halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015 has been slow, say experts.

Sixty-two per cent of Africans do not have access to an improved sanitation facility -- a proper toilet -- which separates human waste from human contact, according to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation. A global report will be published later this year, however, preliminary data on the situation in Africa was released today as part of World Water Day 2008. The Day, built around the theme that “Sanitation matters," seeks to draw attention to the plight of some 2.6 billion people around the world who live without access to a toilet at home and thus are vulnerable to a range of health risks.

"Sanitation is a cornerstone of public health," said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. "Improved sanitation contributes enormously to human health and well-being, especially for girls and women. We know that simple, achievable interventions can reduce the risk of contracting diarrhoeal disease by a third."

Although WHO and UNICEF estimate that 1.2 billion people worldwide gained access to improved sanitation between 1990 and 2004, an estimated 2.6 billion people - including Recognizing hygiene in health education.

HIV/AIDS and Sanitation Compliance.

Although some material exists (FAO, 2002), health education is not yet addressing the chronic disease effects of HIV/AIDS infections. A case study in Limpopo province, South Africa, showed a lack of adjustment not only of water supply and sanitation services, but also of hygiene education. The participating focus groups of caregivers and people living with HIV/AIDS identified good food and exercise as important ways of staying healthy longer. There were, however, no concerted efforts from the departments of water, health, agriculture and the communities to address production around homes and/or waterpoints for better nutrition. Poor sanitation was another problem that was insufficiently addressed.

The households in the case study saw drinking river water as a potential risk for catching cholera, but there was little awareness of the importance of personal and domestic hygiene behaviour for the patients' health. The local health educators focused on the prevention of HIV/AIDS but did not address secondary diseases stemming from poor quality or inadequate water supply, hygiene and sanitation. (Kgalushi et al, 2003).

Ways forward

Safe water, sanitation and hygiene are basic needs and human rights. They help those affected by HIV/AIDS to remain in good health for longer, facilitate care for ill patients and increase their dignity. Programmes and policy makers can give higher priority for water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion to areas with a high incidence of the disease.

Hygiene education needs to be integrated in the training given to home care volunteers and their trainers in order to ensure safe water handling practices.

As most caregivers are women, their influence on planning and implementation of service provision is more necessary than ever. Because often very young and very old women take over much of the water and sanitation related tasks, both hygiene education and technology selection may have to be adapted to suit their requirements.

Community based approaches are known to enhance sustainability and use. They can at the same time function as an entrance to promote community–based prevention and mitigation activities. The principles are the same, the issue at hand more sensitive. It requires well-trained, motivated and non-stigmatising facilitators. Experience with participatory methods exists and can be built on.

 980 million children – had no toilets at home. If current trends continue, there will still be 2.4 billion people without basic sanitation in 2015, and the children among them will continue to pay the price in lost lives, missed schooling, in disease, malnutrition and poverty.

Here at AAHDs, we work day and night to impart our immediate environment with the best internationally approved sanitation standard and best practices, in so doing reducing the effect of communicable diseases on the vulnerable population.

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