Having access to improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities constitute a key component of healthy living and quality of life. Prolonged exposure to insanitary living conditions can significantly enhance the burden of infectious diseases among children and affect nutritional status and growth. In this study we examined the prevalence of some common infectious diseases/disease symptoms of childhood among under-five children in Nigeria, and the association between the occurrence of these diseases with household’s access to WASH facilities. Types of diseases used as outcome variables included diarrheal, and acute respiratory infections (fever and cough). Access to WASH facilities were defined by WHO classification. The association between diarrhoea, fever and chronic cough with sanitation, and hygiene was analyzed by logistic regression techniques. Results showed that the prevalence of diarrhoea, fever and cough was respectively 10.5% (95% CI = 9.7–2.0), 13.4% (95% CI = 11.9–14.8), and 10.4% (95% CI = 9.2–11.5). In the regression analysis, children in the households that lacked all three types of facilities were found to have respectively 1.32 [AOR = 1.329, 95% CI = 1.046–1.947], 1.24 [AOR = 1.242, 95% CI = 1.050–1.468] and 1.43 [AOR = 1.432, 95% CI = 1.113–2.902] times higher odds of suffering from diarrhea, fever and cough. The study concludes that unimproved WASH conditions is an important contributor to ARIs and diarrheal morbidities among Nigerian children. In light of these findings, it is recommended that programs targeting to reduce childhood morbidity and mortality from common infectious diseases should leverage equitable provision of WASH interventions.

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Burden of Common Childhood Diseases in Relation to Improved Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) among Nigerian Children

Fish makes a significant contribution to the food security of millions of people in the Gulf of Guinea, accounting for up to 80 per cent of the animal protein, and sometimes the only source of anim...

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The effects of oil pollution on the marine environment in the Gulf of Guinea—the Bonga Oil Field example

Nigerians are poorly aware of their environment and the damages being done to it through their numerous activities either knowingly or unknowingly. Moreover, the constitution is the basic law of the land and it proclaims its supremacy over and above all other laws in the country and any law that is inconsistent with any of its provisions shall be null and void to the extent of its inconsistency. Although the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) has good 33 National Environmental Regulations that cut across almost all sectors of human activities that can have negative effect on the environment, but their role is not felt in term of environmental management, conservation, protection and sustainability in the country due to inadequate awareness and enforcement. A literature review was done by using a variety of search engines including Research Gate, Google Scholar, Academia, Mendeley, SSRN search strategy to retrieve research publications, “grey literature” and expert working group reports. This review paper tried to do a deep dive into the review of National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) act, focusing on national environmental laws and regulations, gazette, composition, structure, mandate and enforcement power of NESREA and intermediary determinants of empowering the citizens to have legal standing and access to justice to be able to protect and enforce the protection of a clean, healthy environment cum sustainable development and others. Therefore, mending the leakages in the roof is the work of an honest, patriotic, disciplined, hardworking, visionary, accountable, sincere and need for achievement driven followership and leadership that is abreast with current environmental knowledge with a solution focused systems therapy approach to environmental problems with a view to heal the world. This paper therefore recommends that the NESREA Act of 2007 be amended to give it oversight over the entire environment including the oil and gas sector. Furthermore, the requirement of Pre-action Notice and Limitation Clause is removed from the NESREA Act. Also, effective implementation of both the NESREA Act and its regulations requires necessary capacity building of the agency in terms of human, technical, material and financial capacity. It further requires effective cooperation and collaboration of various stakeholders in the implementation and protection of environmental laws in Nigeria.

A Deep Dive into the Review of National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) Act

An estimated 2 billion people do not have access to waste collection services, and 3 billion do not have access to controlled waste disposal. This lack of services and infrastructure has a detrimental impact on public health and the environment with waste being dumped or burnt in communities. With waste levels projected to double in Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs) by 2025 there are significant challenges facing municipalities who already lack the basic resources needed to manage waste. The United Nations acknowledged the problems of poor sanitation and waste management in the Sustainable Development Goals which sets targets to address these challenges, including the target by 2030 to substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, reuse and recycling. Jos, the capital of Plateau state in Nigeria, shares the waste management challenges facing cities in LEDCs. The population of Jos is projected to increase from 1.3 million in 2007 to 2.7 million in 2025, with much of the population living in densely populated areas that lack basic sanitation and controlled disposal of waste. This thesis presents the results of a detailed investigation into the current waste management system in Jos with a focus on low income areas. Through the adoption of mixed methods the thesis identifies how waste is currently being managed and establishes the challenges to sustainable waste management. The existing waste management system was found to be grossly inadequate with 64 communal collection containers being used to collect waste for the entire city, this equates to 20,313 citizens per container. The system leads to most residents disposing of their waste through open dumping in public space and water bodies, and open burning, with impacts to public health and the environment. Key challenges identified include the lack of suitable resources, political interference, poor governance, overlapping responsibilities of agencies, lack of waste awareness amongst the public, and poor infrastructure. 13 recommendations are presented to help develop an improved waste management system in the study area. Despite reduction and reuse being the priorities of the waste hierarchy there is a paucity of research on the potential of waste prevention within LEDCs especially low income areas. With waste levels projected to increase, waste prevention interventions could play an important role. Following waste analysis and a review of waste prevention initiatives adopted globally, a shortlist of options suitable for the study area was developed. This shortlist was assessed using Ketso and SWOT analysis facilitated in focus groups representing the waste industry and the community. Community composting was identified as waste prevention intervention with the most potential due to 65.2% of the waste stream in the study area being biodegradable, and only 5.2% of the community currently composting. Benefits of this approach would be less pressure on the waste collection system, reductions in waste being indiscriminately dumped, increased awareness of waste issues, and compost production that could be utilised in the community.

The waste management system in low income areas of Jos, Nigeria : the challenges and waste reduction opportunities

The increasing quest for economic development and demographic demand has led to rapid forest decline and degradation of the forests in Nigeria. Forests are lost yearly through the industrial, commercial and other urban-related activities. This is currently impacting on the environment and accelerating degradation and depletion of its forest cover and resources. Deforestation is an ongoing phenomenon in Nigeria and is becoming more pronounced with increasing population and urbanization. The effects of deforestation have led to a decline in forest cover, forest degradation, impoverishment of the soil and general deterioration in environmental conditions. However, the inestimable values of forests in promoting sustainable livelihood, industrial raw materials availability, food security, medicine and health care researches, cannot be over emphasized, hence the need for imbibing strategies for reversing the trend and promoting measures that could enhance sustainable management of Nigerian forests. Thus this review paper provides integrated insight into the strategies viable for reversing the deforestation trend and the effective management of the wide varieties of Nigeria’s natural vegetation

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The Economic and Ecological Effects of Deforestation on the Nigerian Environment

Environmental degradation has continued to generate unpleasant challenges for health and economic development in Nigeria. Some of these problems include deforestation, pollution, global warming and improper pesticides. Despite environmental laws and policies targeted at amelio-rating these problems, the situation in Nigeria seems degenerating owing to the fact that these laws are not effectively enforced. This paper analyzes the use of environmental laws by different enforcement agencies in Nigeria, the methods of enforcement these agencies invoke, and the challenges they face in enforcing the relevant laws. These challenges include low-level constitutional provision for environmental protection, roles and conflicts in environmental management, undue adherence to legalism by the courts and absence of mandatory disclosure of information. Thus, the legislative objectives remain unachieved because enforcement is superficial; excessive time exists between non-compliance and enforcement; available punishment for non-compliance is inadequate; injured parties are not properly compensated; and some environmental crimes receive administrative instead of remedial measures or criminal punishments. The study advocates for the encouragement of private and public interest litigation, creation of procedure for enhancing public participation in Nigerian environmental protection, creation of environmental emergencies and establishment of environmental courts.

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O. T. Joseph

Papers

Rethinking Environmental Law Enforcement in Nigeria