Nigerian kids by roadside: poor sanitation kills thousands yearly

At least 124,000 children died from poor sanitation and hygiene in Nigeria every year, an official with UN’s Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) said Thursday.

Ebele Okeke, the WSSCC ambassador for Nigeria, revealed that at an event to commemorate the 2015 Global Hand Washing Day in the capital Abuja.

Okeke urged more efforts to reduce preventable deaths, especially among under-five children, noting hand washing is a basic prevention practice to stop diseases.

Kanaan Nadar, Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at UNICEF Nigeria, called on all parents to inculcate the habit of hand washing with soap and running water in their children.

On the same occasion, Nigeria’s Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, Istifanus Musa, said the government would promote hygiene including hand washing among citizens.

Musa said the campaign aims to reduce child mortality rates through preventing respiratory and diarrhoeal diseases.

Diarrhoea is a major child-killing disease in Nigeria, second to malaria, according to the official.