Nigeria: access to hygiene for displaced people in Benue State (1/2)
Audio 02:23
In Nigeria, 46 million people lack access to a safe sanitation system and are forced to defecate outdoors.
(Illustrative photo) © Pawarisa Surajaras / EyeEm / Getty Images
By: Liza Fabbian
6 min
4.5 billion people on the planet still do not have access to safe sanitation.
Nigeria is the second worst country in the world in this regard: 23% of the population of the most populous country in Africa - or 46 million people, including many children - do not have access to a healthy health system and are forced to defecate outdoors, with serious health risks.
Publicity
With the coronavirus pandemic, access to basic hygiene has become more essential than ever for vulnerable populations.
In Benue State, in east-central Nigeria, Unicef is working with its Wash program with people displaced by the conflict between herders and farmers in the region.
Benue State is the second most internally displaced in Nigeria, after Borno, in the grip of the jihadist insurgency in the northeast of the country.
Nearly 50,000 victims of the recurring conflict between herders and farmers now live in camps around the town of Makurdi.
There are more than 13,000 of them crammed into the Daudu 2 camp. In the middle of the day, elderly women and very young children take shelter under a large tree planted in the sand.
James Nyita is one of the few men present, parchment skin and beard yellowed by the sun: “
We have been living here for almost three years now.
We were driven out by the Fulani herders.
We were forced to leave our villages to come here.
Security is still too bad to return home.
If we go back there to look for food, we risk being killed.
"
In the camps of Guma district, destitution is almost total.
But since April, great efforts have been made by Unicef to improve the hygiene of the displaced.
Sanitary facilities have been rehabilitated, others built.
Motorized wells and water points have been installed.
Two million soaps were also distributed.
Joséphine Pitila is the local coordinator of the Wash program: “
Oh, you would have been here before, we couldn't put one foot in front of the other, because of the excrement and the garbage.
It was really, really dirty, really.
I had to tiptoe around, there was even droppings very close to where these people are sleeping.
So, we had to make them understand the importance of hygiene and train volunteers to clean the place and mobilize the population.
There is not enough room here, not enough tents, there are thirty families living in one of these rooms.
Some are even forced to sleep outside at night.
"
Only twelve toilets were operational before April, there are now 49 around the camp.
Much awareness-raising work has also been carried out to explain the link between poor hygiene and disease.
Anita stands in front of the entrance to an overcrowded room: “
For example, we have learned to wash our hands systematically before eating.
We are cleaner, we have changed our practices.
Before, the only solution was often to do our business outside and then bury them.
We cannot all go and live in neighboring villages.
And at least here we have access to basic care.
But life remains difficult because there are far too many of us.
"
Only 9% of the total population of Nigeria has access to both water, sanitation and basic hygiene.
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