Factors Militating Against Effective Environmental Sanitation in Awka Metropolitan City of Awka Anambra State.
Introduction
Background of the Study
In its modern concept, environment includes not only water, air and soil but the social and economic condition under which we live (Park, 2011).
The key to mans health lie largely on his environment. Infact, much of mans’ ill-health can be traced to adverse environmental factors such as water, soil and air pollution poor housing conditions, presence of animal reservoir and insects vectors of diseases, which poses serious threats to man’s health.
Man is often responsible for the pollution of the environment through urbanization, industrialization and other human activities.
According to the National sanitation foundation of USA, the word sanitation is defined as “way of life that is expressed in the clean lines of homes, farms, business, premises, neighbourhood and community Parks (2011).
Furthermore, World Health Organization (WHO) defines sanitation as the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and faeces and other waste materials (UNICEF and WHO 2012)
Environmental Sanitation is a process whereby the environment is kept clean and conditions that promote health and prevent diseases are maintained (Park, 1995).
Similarly, Ezeka (2004) described Environmental Sanitation as the reduction of hazardous and hostile elements in the environment such as minimizing environmental pollution of all types and also creating and maintaining good environmental conditions that promotes health and prevents diseases.
Hence inadequate environmental sanitation is a major cause of disease, world-wide and improving sanitation is known to have a significant beneficial impact on quality health.
In addition, environmental sanitation is the control of all those factors in man’s physical environment which exercise or may exercise deleterious effect on his physical development, Health and survival according to WHO.
It can also be seen as the principle and practice of effecting healthful and hygienic conditions in the environment to promote public health and welfare, improve quality of life and ensure a sustainable environment. (Alabi, 2010).
The essential components of environmental sanitations include: solid waste management, medical waste management, excreta and sewage management, food sanitation, sanitary inspection of premises, market and Abattoir Sanitation, adequate potable water supply, school sanitation, pest and vector control.
In most developing countries adequate environmental sanitation has not been strictly adhered to. For example in some part of Nigeria, living with waste as part of the natural environment has become a way of life.
Although there has been a remarkable improvement from what it used to be in the late eighties/nineties, there is still much to do as Awka the “capital of Anambra State” is constantly increasing by vast population through steady influx of people of all works of life into the city.
The necessity of environmental sanitation made the researcher to focus their study on the identification of sanitation problems and ways of solving them.
For instance Aniefiok (2004) noted that solid waste management practices was generally poor among household members, private waste collectors and municipal wastes collectors as well as problems in the transportation of the refuse to the point of final disposal and the methods of its final disposal. These refuse consist mostly of garbage, ashes, paper, empty cans sewage and also industrial wastes.
References
Alabi, (2010). Sustainable solid waste management in developing countries. Proceedings of the second High-level Meeting on Health and Environment in ASEAN and East Asian Countries, Bangkok, 12-13th December.
Anambra State Environmental Protection Agency, (2016). Environmental pollution and its health hazards in Ibadan, Nigeria. African Journal of Nursing & Midwifery, 7 (2)pp 35-50
Aniefiok, (2004). Annual Review World Bank. Washington D.C Sanitation Wiki-Media Foundation
ASESA, (1985). Environmental Exodus: ‘An emergent crisis in the global arena’ Washington D.C Climate Institute, USA
ASWAMA (2011). Random House Inc.Sustainable sanitation
Babalola, (2014). State of world population Unleashing the potential of urban growth. Retrieved from: http://www. unfpa.org/publications, (Accessed on: 27 August).
Bauer, (2011). Health impacts in developing countries: New evidence and new prospects. J. Inst. Water Environ. Manage., 4: 6571-6577.
Black and Fawcett, (2011). Neighbourhoods and Health. Oxford University Press Inc., New York.
Cairncross, (1996). Willingness of Port Harcourt City residents to relocate their residence; implication for Urban decongestion. J. Pedagogy Dev., Special Edn. Pp78-89.
Census, (2006). The Last Taboo: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis. Earthscan Publications, London, UK.
Chen and Tsai, (2015) . Diarrhea and effects of different water sources, sanitation and hygiene behavior in East Africa. Trop. Med. Int. Health, 7(9): 750-756.
Ezeka, (2004). The legacy of landfills in Mustafa, N. (ed) plastics waste management disposal, recycling and reuse. Marcel Dekker Publishers, Inc. New York.
Fitzpatrick and Lagory, (2010). Sustainable solid waste management in developing countries. Proceedings of the second High-level Meeting on Health and Environment in ASEAN and East Asian Countries, Bangkok, 12-13th December.
Irwin and Rosenstock, (1950). The Last Taboo: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis.Earthscan Publications, London, UK.
Johnson and Nnameka, (2011). The august 2011 flood in Ibadan, Nigeria: Anthropogenic causes and consequences. Int.J. Disaster Risk Sci., 3(4).
Kirkpatrick and Cuban (2012),Meeting Development Goals in Small Urban Centers: Water and Sanitation in the World’s Cities, Earthscan Publication, London.
Mmom, (2013). The urban environment and health in a world of increasing globalization: Issues for developing countries. Bull. World Health Organization, 78(9): 1117-1126.
Nnaemeka, (2013). Understanding Karachi: Planning and reform for the Future. City Press Karachi.
Nworgu, (2016). The World Health Report 2007. A Safer Future. Retrieved from:
Ogawa, (2015) Unhealthy Places: The Ecology of Risk. The Urban Landscape, New York.
Park, (1995). Construction of Waste Recycling Process, Research Report, Victoria BC. Business Dictionary.
Park, (2011). Pollution problems and control in factory environment in Nigeria. Namoda Tech Scope Journal of Applied Science and Technology, 4(2),23-45
Tilley, Ulrich Lüthi, Reymond and Zurbrügg, (2014). Health impacts in developing countries: New evidence and new prospects. J. Inst. Water Environ. Manage., 4: 6571-6577.
Uguoma,(2012). Socio-anthropological determinants and home managements of Karachi Pakistan. Journal of Tropical Paediatrics 40:23-30
UNICEF and WHO, (2012). Emergency preparedness and response to Ibadan flood disaster : implications for wellbeing, 5(8).2
Unuraye and Olojaba, (2005).Guidelines and standard for environmental control in Nigeria.
Vanguard (2013). Geographic information systems and cellular automata based model of informal settlement growth. Ph.D. Dissertation, School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne, 2003. Int. J. Soc. Sci.,3(3).
WHO, (2009). Geographic information systems and cellular automata based model of informal settlement growth. Ph.D. Dissertation, School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne, 2003. Int. J. Soc.Sci., 3(3),23
WHO, (2010). Meeting Development Goals in Small Urban Centers: Water and Sanitation in the World’s Cities, Earthscan Publication, London.
WHO, (2012). The World Health Report, A Safer Future. Retrieved from:
WHO, (2013). African Cities in Crisis: Managing Urban Growth. Westview Press,
World Bank, (2010).Diarrhoea in children under 5 years of age from Ifakara,Tanzania: A case-control study. J. Clin. Microbiol., 38: 4459-4462.
Be the first to comment