Cholera Outbreak: Improper Waste Disposal and Open Defecation Threaten Water Safety, Says NCDC

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has expressed concern over the growing threat to water safety, which triggers outbreak of water-borne diseases, including cholera.

Its Director-General, Dr Jide Idris, expressed the worry in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja, stressing that improper refuse disposal and open defeacation are endangering the quality of water sources used for drinking and for personal use.As of June 24, this year, there were 1,528 suspected cholera cases, 65 confirmed cases and 53 deaths across 107 local government areas in 31 states, reflecting a case fatality rate of 3.5 per cent since the beginning of the year the centre had said.

The NCDC boss urged Nigerians to adopt safe sanitation practices and called on state governments to enforce stricter waste management regulations. He said: “Unsafe practices lead to contamination of water bodies.“We must take responsibility to ensure the safety of our water.

Proper waste disposal and elimination of open defecation are crucial in this direction.

“There is also the need for public education and awareness about the importance of hygiene and proper sanitation practices amid rising concerns about the spread of diseases such as cholera and typhoid, which thrive in unsanitary conditions.

’’In Lagos State, some residents have decried the poor access to public water by the Lagos State Water Corporation (LWC), amid the cholera outbreak.

They told NAN that they had been relying on boreholes for so many years given that the state’s public water had not been working, thereby exposing them to water-borne diseases.

Also, the Kwara State Government has put measures in place to forestall outbreak of diseases, especially cholera.Although there is no reported case of cholera outbreak in the state, its Environment Commissioner, Dr Abubakar Ayinla, said: ‘’We are killing many birds with one stone, just as the National Environmental Sanitation Day, is marked on June 28 annually, we also need to be weary and proactive.