A study of access to sanitation profiles of rural upland and coastal communities of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

A.J Okon,M.E Eja,R.E Kalu

doi:10.4314/gjpas.v23i2.1

Abstract

In developing countries, e.g., Nigeria, several communities have limited access to sanitation and sanitation facilities, thus such communities dump their solid and liquid wastes indiscriminately. The aim of this study was to assess access to sanitation, and compare basic sanitation facilities between upland and coastal communities of Akwa Ibom State. With a cross-sectional design, 420 respondents were selected and administered questionnaires to obtain information on sanitation and sanitation facilities of the communities using a multi-stage random sampling technique. Result shows that faecal disposal facilities available for upland and coastal communities were respectively 187(89.05%) and 98(46.67%). 30(26.79%) of households defecate in open bodies of water in the coastal areas, while upland communities do not. Also, 9(39.13%) and 64(57.14%) of upland and coastal areas respectively, defecate in bushes/swamps, while 14(60.87%) and 18(16.07%) bury their faeces in pits. On the whole, improved sanitation coverage recorded 61.90% and 38.10% respondents for the rural upland and coastal communities respectively, while unimproved sanitation coverage for upland and coastal communities recorded 31.43% and 68.57% respectively. This indicates that sanitation facilities and coverage are worse in the rural coastal areas. In conclusion, both upland and coastal communities of Akwa Ibom State still lack adequate sanitation, although the upland communities enjoy relatively improved sanitation than the coastal communities.

Highlights

Sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for safe disposal of human faeces and urine (Okon, 2016). Eja (2014) defines sanitation as a system of disposal of solid and liquid wastes in order to maintain public hygiene and sanitation is synonymous with public hygiene
The data on the sanitation facility in the rural upland communities showed that 8.02% of the households with faecal disposal facilities had water closet connected to septic system, 57% had simple pit latrines with lids over them while 30.48% had simple latrine without lids over them
25.51% of the households with faecal disposal facilities had water closet connected to septic system, 2.64% had pour flush latrine with brick wall super structures, 39.80% had simple pit latrine with cover and 32.65% had simple pit latrine without cover

Summary

Introduction

Sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for safe disposal of human faeces and urine (Okon, 2016). Eja (2014) defines sanitation as a system of disposal of solid and liquid wastes in order to maintain public hygiene and sanitation is synonymous with public hygiene. Sanitation generally refers to the provision of facilities and services for safe disposal of human faeces and urine (Okon, 2016). Basic sanitation means the lowest-cost technology ensuring hygienic excreta and sullage disposal, and a clean and healthful living environment, both at home and in the neighbourhood of users. In this case, WHO/UNICEF (2006) has classified sanitation facilities into improved and unimproved sanitation facilities. Sanitation facilities include piped-sewer system, septic tank, ventilated-improved (VIP) latrine, pit latrine with slab and composting toilet. Unimproved sanitation facilities include pit latrine without slab/open pit, bucket hanging toilet/hanging latrine, no facilities or bush or field

Objectives

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Results

Conclusion