Water, hygiene and sanitation improve health – and romance

Nafisatu Yunusa is excited about change. The 23-year-old mother of three lives in Marafa, a village of just over 600 people in Bauchi State, northern Nigeria where the dry winter season can be harsh. Red dust clouds the sky, vegetation turns brown, and there’s an absence of rain for months.  Nafisatu trains her community members […]

Nafisatu Yunusa is excited about change. The 23-year-old mother of three lives in Marafa, a village of just over 600 people in Bauchi State, northern Nigeria where the dry winter season can be harsh. Red dust clouds the sky, vegetation turns brown, and there’s an absence of rain for months. 

Nafisatu trains her community members on good hygiene and sanitation practices. 

Like other rural communities in the region, for a long time, many people in Marafa village had no access to running water or toilets. In the absence of these, open defecation became the norm. Most households had lost at least one family member to preventable diseases such as cholera and typhoid as a result of this.

Fields and villages were contaminated with feces, which were not only unsightly and malodorous, but also extremely unsanitary. 

“Back then, our children were always suffering from diarrhea, typhoid fever, cholera,” Nafisatu explains. “It was the biggest challenge we had; it was everywhere.”

Information about stopping open defecation has helped to make the village a more attractive and healthier place to live. Also, the establishment of a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Committee (WASHCOM) in her village, has transformed Nafisatu’s life. 

The WASHCOMs have been set up in communities in the area under UNICEF’s SHAWN (Sanitation Hygiene and Water in Nigeria) programme, which is funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID).

Washing hands with simple “tippy taps,” made with easily available supplies, and soap or ash reduces the spread of disease.

Nafisatu works as a treasurer for the WASHCOM and is one of the nine Marafa WASHCOM members who have been trained to teach healthy sanitation practices to others in the community. 

“Now when a child goes to use the toilet, he or she comes and washes his/her hands  with soap, if it is available, or ash,” she says, “and that has contributed a lot to stopping the spread of diseases.” 

 Subsequent upon this, Marafa has become one of 351 communities now certified as “open defecation free” in the Local Government Area of Dass, in Bauchi State. Every household in the community has a latrine and nearby hand washing facilities.

The SHAWN programme has also awarded the community with a borehole and hand pump, so water becomes easily accessible, even during the dry season. 

Nafisatu says the improved sanitation and easy access to water have not only saved lives, but also helped ease a common strain on marriages in Marafa.

Among the good hygiene practices they have been trained to teach, WASHCOM hygiene promotion team members have shared their knowledge with women community members about menstrual hygiene management. 

When water is easily available, good hygiene practices are also easier to implement. Nafisatu recalls that women in her village used to stuff dirty menstrual padding under their beds, which often made their bedrooms to smell.

Their husbands, recounts Nafisatu, would light mosquito coils, hoping the acrid smoke would mask the smell, but to no avail. Nafisatu said that several husbands even refused to sleep with their wives. 

With the introduction of running water in the village, and with women having learned about better menstrual hygiene practices, that problem has vanished. 

“The change has been so overwhelming,” says Nafisatu with a smile, “relationships are much improved!”

UNICEF/Nigeria/2017/Stefan Heunis