Avoid deaths caused by poor sanitation

        There is an old proverb that says cleanliness is next to godliness. People know that it is a must for a person to maintain basic cleanliness so as to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Failure to maintain personal hygiene often leads to infections and diseases. The openly, dirty individuals in our societies, are looked at with disdain.

It is sad to hear that poor hygienic practices cost Tanzania Sh340 billion annually. The figure was given out the other day by Health minister Ummy Mwalimu. In 2012, the figure was about Sh300 billion, which means, despite all efforts, it has been going up annually, which calls for national soul searching.

According to the ministry, in a day for every 100 patients that visit health facilities “about 60 suffer from diseases caused by poor sanitation.” Thus the monies we are talking about lost here, is in terms of treating easily preventable diseases. If lost man-hours by the sick and those taking care of them could be counted among other dynamics, the Sh340 billion could easily multiply several times.

The poor hygiene includes open defecation and failure to wash hands with soap after visiting the little rooms. In this age and time, still some households not have toilets!

Does this ring a bell? If only we could maintain good hygiene, the hospital daily visits for treatment may reduce by 40 percent, which would be a great achievement. This tells us that whether we like it or not, for our nation to be healthy, we need to give sanitation the priority it deserves.

Famous American author Henry Miller noted that “nine-tenths of our sickness can be prevented by right thinking plus right hygiene - nine-tenths of it!”

To attain the national socio-economic development that we have been fighting for, good sanitation policies and practices are a must. I applaud the national government for coming up with the National Sanitation Campaign (Phase II), which in three-years will fight to influence behavioral change for improved hygiene in our societies. People should be made to understand that, good hygiene practices leads to good health, and the vice versa is also true.

According to www.wateraid.org in Tanzania and other third world nations, the poor carry the economic burden of poor sanitation more that the well off individuals. I am imagining of a person whose daily income is less than Sh2,000, and in a month s/he maybe spend up to a week earning for health issues associated with poor hygiene!

National Sanitation Campaign (I) linked sanitation, health and education, following multiple researches that show that safe water and sanitation in schools leads to better health and this in turn may lead to better performance.

A Twaweza brief titled “Clean and Safe? Water, sanitation and hygiene” released this year notes in rural areas only under half (46%) the populace have access to clean and safe drinking water. This is a policy issue the government has to solve. But there are also behavioural issues. They say a habit is a disease. We have some people in our communities who fail basic hygiene tests- bathing, washing clothes, drinking boiled waters, safe cooking etc, out of mere laziness and neglect. We need to root out such behaviours.

Poor hygiene and sanitation leads to diseases like cholera, typhoid, ascariasis, pneumonia, among others. For children, poor hygiene and sanitation and unsafe water is said to lead to reduced physical growth among many other weaknesses.

One of UN’s Sustainable Development Goal Target by 2030, is to “achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all.” I pray as a nation we will reach there soon. We just need to make transformational changes and stop doing business as usual in hygiene and sanitation issues.

Saumu Jumanne is an Assistant Lecturer, Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE)