One in three Nigerians lacks access to drinking water — UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Fund has said that one in three Nigerians does not have access to basic drinking water services, adding that on the average, each of the people living in rural areas of the country has access to only four litres of water daily.

UNICEF specialist on sanitation, Bioye Ogunjobi, told our correspondent that as part of the campaign to improve on water supply, sanitation and hygiene in the country, 1,227 schools in Nigeria had benefitted from the agency’s various interventions. He said UNICEF had supported 599 primary health care centres across Nigeria, with 2.4 million Nigerians also benefitting from distribution of hygiene supplies by the agency.

Ogunjobi said that as part of UNICEF campaign against open defecation in the country, the agency had provided improved water facilities to over 1.7 million Nigerians, while 2.2 million people had also been provided with improved water facilities.

He said, “At least, one in three Nigerians does not have access to basic drinking water services. On the average, people living in the rural areas have access to only four litres of water per capita each day. Research shows that only 34 per cent of schools and 12 per cent of hospitals in Nigeria have access to basic sanitation services.”