Africasan4: Ngor declaration aims to eliminate open defecation by 2030

                                                            By Babatope Babalobi

Rising from the three day 4th African Sanitation and Hygiene Conference tagged “AfricaSan4″ African leaders  have  issued the “Ngor Declaration on Sanitation and Hygiene” which aims to achieve  universal access to adequate and sustainable sanitation,  safe hygiene services and eliminate open defecation by 2030.

They also reaffirmed their commitment to the human right to water and sanitation for all for all Africans, and pledged to work towards progressively  eliminating inequalities that currently deny about 547m people in Africa access to safe sanitation.

Another major highlight of the declaration is a commitment by countries to fund sanitation and hygiene budget to a minimum of  0.5% of GDP by 2020.

The triennial AfricaSan organised by the African MinistersCouncil on Water  (AMCOW) aims to address Africa’s sanitation challenge including helping agencies and governments shape strategies for action at many levels.  Mainly attended  by sanitation technical experts, it provides a forum to to exchange lessons, to identify approaches and technologies that work best in their local circumstances.  This 4th AfricaSan water held in Dakar, Senegal, this week.

Text of the Ngor Declaration on Sanitation and Hygiene” Adopted by the African Ministers responsible for sanitation and hygiene on 27 May 2015 at AficaSan4

Preamble
We, the Ministers and Head of Delegations responsible for sanitation and hygiene in Africa, together with senior civil servants, academics, civil society, development partners and private sector at the 4th African Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene (AfricaSan), convened by the Government of Senegal with support from the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) in Dakar, Senegal, May 25-27, 2015

1. Recognizing that while an estimated 133 million people living in Africa gained improved sanitation since 1990, the level of progress has not kept pace with demograpic change; many countries do not have adequate high-level leadership, financial and human resources to implement existing policies, fail to tackle equity, do not build, manage or maintain sanitation system and services, or create the large-scale hygiene behaviour change;
2. Mindful that an estimated 61% of people living in Africa do not have access to improve sanitation and that 21% still defecate in the open;
3. Noting that this lack pf access to improved sanitation together with poor hygiene practice result in a huge burden of disease and that the associated economic, human,social,health and environmental costs are a major burden on African countries;
4. Reaffirming the human right of safe drinking water and sanitation for all;
5. Welcoming the aspiration of the draft Sustainable Development Goals which include an explicit target to “By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and an end to open defecation, paying special attention to the need of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations” committing to integrating these in national policies and plans;
6. And recognizing that the time has come to incorporate the lesson from the eThekwini commitments and replace them by the “Ngor Declaration on Sanitation and Hygiene”, setting out in particular clear indicator for monitoring progress;

The Vision articulated by African Ministers responsible for Sanitation and Hygiene at African 4, Dakar, Senegal, is summarized below:
Achieve universal access to adequate and sustainable sanitation and hygiene services and eliminate open defecation by 2030.
Commitments
To realise this vision, our governments commit to:-

1. Focus on the poorest, most marginalized and unserved aimed at progressively eliminating inequities in access and use and implement national and local strategies with emphasis on equity and sustainability;
2. Mobilise support and resources at the highest political level for sanitation and hygiene to disproportionately prioritize sanitation and hygiene in national development plans.
3. Establish and track sanitation and hygiene budget lines that consistently increase annually to reach a minimum of 0.5%GDP by 2020;
4. Ensure strong leadership and coordination at all levels to build and sustain governance for sanitation and hygiene across sectors especially water, health, nutrition, education, gender and the environment;
5. Develop and fund strategies to bridge the sanitation and hygiene human resource capacity gap at all levels;
6. Ensure inclusive, safely-managed sanitation services and function hand-washing facilities in public institutions and spaces;
7. Progressively eliminate untreated waste, encouraging its productive use;
8. Enable and engage the private sector in developing innovative sanitation and hygiene products and services especially for the marginalized and unserved;
9. Establish government-led monitoring, reporting, evaluating, learning and review systems;
10. Enable continued active engagement with AMCOW’s AfricaSan process.

We further call on:

1. All people living in Africa, especially the youth, to utilize and maintain sanitation and hygiene services with propriety and dignity;
2. AMCOW to prioritize and facilitate adequate resourcing for sanitation and hygiene by mobilising dedicated, substantive new sources of financing;
3. AMCOW to facilitate the establishment and management of systems and processes for performance monitoring and accountability against the Ngor Declaration;
4. Training institutions in Africa to strengthen local capacity to deliver appropriate services in line with demand;
   research institutions in Africa to strengthen the evidence base and develop innovative locally appropriate solutions;
5. Civil society in Africa to forge a cohesive, coherent and transparent vision and strategy to work with all stakeholders to achieve the Ngor Declaration;
6. Traditional institutions, religious leaders and faith based organisations to strongly support equitable sanitation and hygiene activities in their communities;
7. The private sector to increase its engagement in the entire sanitation and hygiene value chain to improve innovation and efficiency;
8. Development banks, donors and partners to increase their support to government led efforts for universal access to sanitation and hygiene and to match this financial support with responsible accountable engagement.

And in recognition of this we make this declaration in Ngor, Dakar on 27th May, 2015,

Water related diseases ravage Taraba town

Ayodele Samuel +2348074420617, gtms06@yahoo.com

In Karim,  up to ten people are may be diagnosed of water related diseases daily, while A Medical Doctor says between two- five people die weekly of

Villagers scavenging water from a ‘stream’

diseases, Ayodele Samuel Ayokunle, Journalist and  blogger at www.ayodelenews.blogspot.com writes

My encounter on the road to Karim Village wasn’t a palatable experience for me, the Village had just been ravaged by the deadly flood that swept across the country, bad roads, fear of transportation on water coupled with visible angry flooded villagers. At last I landed in ‘Snake Island’. Karim Village, headquarters of  Karim- Lamido  Local Government  in  Taraba state, North East Nigeria.

It takes about  seven hours by road from Jalingo  the state capital, due to bad  roads and the  vastness of the land, but I  took less than 3hours  taking waterways using local boat from  River Lau, to  River Benue to  Jen and motorcycle  to Karim town.

Thou the people of karim Lamido are still battling the effects of flood that ravaged the rustic community, Typhoid and other water related diseases remains another nightmare.

Karim village known among visitors mostly Corps Members (a Nigeria government youth scheme for fresh graduates) as Snake Inland due to heavy presence of reptiles.

The town   is surrounded by water and thick grasses, which makes snakes a common sight , about four  different tribes (Karim jo , Jenjo, Bachama, Bambur) made up of the undeveloped Agrarian land with people majorly dealing in rice farming and fishing as source of livelihood.

Faced with lack of safe water despite surrounded by River Benue and Lau River, lack of toilets, the people of Karim despite their many problems, has its own uniqueness of peace and harmony  among its more than  195,844(2006 census)  Christians and Muslims who co-exist peacefully.
Water related disease affects the young and the old in Karim  because of their nomadic nature,  they tend to move from place to place in search of greener pastures for their immediate family, leaving behind available water source .

Major sources of water include rivers, ponds, and open wells which the inhabitants use for their domestic activities and every other water related activity.

Available boreholes are: a private owned borehole operated by RABI waters,that sells water especially to water vendors(mai-ruwa)  and one at the emirs palace are the only source of water to the people

Most Government sunk boreholes and the recently sunk ones under the Millennium Development Goals MDGs are no longer functioning due to what residents describe as “poor execution of the projects.”

A resident , Alhaji Abdullahi Umar said that sources of portable water were all blocked and most government boreholes are all dried, “we find it very difficult to have clean water for consumption and domestic use because most government water has dried up, so we drink from the ponds ”

However little or no assistance is available on the issue of healthcare, the community is armed with an unequipped primary health care center   to abate the water crisis facing the community.

According to, the Principal Community Health Officer(PCHO) of only Primary Health Centre, Karim Dr. Isa Nayin ,  typhoid and other gastro intestinal diseases like dysentery and diarrhea are prevalent in the locality. He said that these diseases is commonly reported from  remote areas which includes Karim- Mondi, Ruwan Fulani, Kwanchi and Mutum Daya, the villages about two hours motorcycle ride from the center.

Sighting the disease of the F’s (Faeces-Flies-Food-Finger) as the major vector of the disease,  Dr Isa stressed  that these diseases occur because there is no reliable source of water within the locality.

He estimated that 5-10 persons are daily diagnosis of water related cases in the hospital, while 2-5 died weekly of same illness, “ because the people still believe in traditional medicine so they usually don’t like visiting the hospital because of the cost and distance.”

Another problem facing the community is ‘Color change in water’  mostly especially in  the rural areas where different activities take place within the village ponds or rivers,  pigs are allowed to go play in drinking ponds thereby causing a dramatic change in the color of water  changing to red.

While a health worker Bumanda Andrew express fear considering the increasing casualties of water related diseases appealed to both local and state Government authorities to come to the aid of the community residents.

“Government need to compliment  efforts of United Nations in providing social amenities to the less privileged, people here needs help on water and many other social problems”

Commenting on the water problem, Government official, the vice- chairman of Karim Lamido Local Government,   Alhaji Ahmad Umar Karim admitted that Government is  aware of the peoples plights but assures that efforts are made to reduce their hardship.

“The government has done their best in terms of provision of portable water, citing example of a tap water pipe which were laid by the present Government across the local Government headquarters but which were suddenly vandalized by hoodlums without anybody reporting to the relevant authorities.”

Hand dug holes for sourcing un safe water

He said the people should complement Government efforts by protecting Government properties sited in their domain

The people of Karim are still hopeless on safe water, basic healthcare among other social amenities, where will respite come their way?