Chuks Oyema-Aziken
Akwa Ibom State has emerged the cleanest state in Nigeria.
Prince Ene Baba Owoh, Jr., Founder, Clean Up Nigeria disclosed this when members of the groups National Technical Study Group (NTSG) for the 2021 State/Cities Cleanliness Performance Rating briefed the press in Abuja on Thursday.
He said the result is the outcome of a combined Physical Verification (30%) and Satellite imagery data (70%) applied in all the Performance Indicators on a monthly year round.
The Performance Indicators are Streets/Roads Cleanliness 30%, Vegetation/Drain Control 15%, Waste Management Services 30%, Public Opinion Poll (POP) 10%, Knowledge and attitude and practice (KAP) of
hygiene and sanitation of the people 15%.
Owoh said Akwa Ibom emerged the Cleanest State for the year 2022 in Nigeria, with a cumulative score of 62%.
Ebonyi took second position with 45%, while Bauchi came third with 44%.
In the category of cities, Abuja capital city emerged the cleanest city in Nigeria for year 2022 with 79% closely followed by Uyo with 63%.
According to Owoh, the study observed that less than 10% compared to 2% in 2021 improvement was recorded in the procurement of waste management equipment by less than 3 States in the country in 2022, and with working drop in waste management equipment as most previously on ground became unserviceable couple with high cost of service provision especially diesel salary at over 900 Naira against N250,000 naira in 2022.
“Funding by States/Local Government Councils for waste management services has reduced drastically when compared to the increase services offered. This equally calls for serious incremental review on the part of governments at all levels to help confront the challenges of ensuring a cleaner, healthy and safer environment.
“Improvement of the health of sanitation workers employed both by government and private sectors to provide waste management services fell from 36% in 2021 to 16% in 2022. Interestingly, the informal sector operators of waste recycling and reuse enterprises recorded higher patronage, as their activities increase from 50% in 2021 to 31% in 2022.
“The incidence and prevalence of sanitation related diseases has increased from thirty two (32) per cent to fifty one (32) per cent in Nigeria, this intakes were elevated 51.2% more by the flood disaster in the last quarter of 2022.
“Inadequate sanitation/hygiene practices of the people in over thirty five (35) States and the FCT still was made worst by flooded that effected most communities as people are made to live in unhabitual situation to survive.
“Interestly, , the practice of open defecation in all the thirty six (36) States of the Federation and FCT has reduce from 34% in 2021 to 28% in 2022. Nigeria, nevertheless Nigeria still remains the number one country in the world that leads in open defecation since 2018 to 2022 (back to back).
“In 2022 our studies further showed that less than three (3) States who scored above 40% can be considered to be clean, compared to 2021 when there were four (4) States (Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi and Bauchi States) and four (4) cities namely; (Abuja, Uyo, Bauchi and Abakiliki) can be said to be clean in year 2022.
“Performance indicators from our studies shows that over 176.3 million Nigerians in 2022 are living in unclean environment, compared to 172 million in 2021.
“There have been no increase in the number of States with sanitary landfills beside Lagos, Oyo, Abuja and Bauchi while the remaining
34 States operate open dumping. This development is not only alarming but clearly indicate lack of seriousness by government at levels to key into the global best practices of waste modernization with related benefit.
“As our graphic chart statistics on monitoring/evaluation of the States have shown only 7 States (Akwa Ibom, Abuja, Cross River, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Lagos and Kaduna) who scored above 10% out of the 30% on the streets/roads cleanliness indicators have clean roads in the country.
“Vegetation/drainage control shows that only Akwa Ibom Lagos Island and FCT scored above 7% from the 15% marks have effectively managed and sustain vegetation /drainage control, in the country.
“On personal hygiene and sanitation only four States (Akwa Ibom, Plateau, Cross River and Abuja City) scored above 4% of the 15% and can be said to come close to possession of good personal hygiene/sanitation practices in the country.
He said Akwa Ibom State won the cleanest State trophy for keeps, and a live size golden trophy measuring 12ft by 6ft will be mounted by CUN at a strategically approved point by the State Government for being winner in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 and 2022.
CUN encouraged the citizens to embrace strong personal hygiene and good sanitation habits and to dispose of their waste at the right places.
“We are encouraged by government at all levels and the populace in the sense that after the initial forth cleanliness index ratings studies we carried out in 2018, 2019 and 2020 there has been encouraging improvement in hygiene/sanitation practice across the states by 2% in year 2022, however it could be better.
“This is in line with the project’s goal which is founded on bringing sanitation and waste management to the front burner of both government, the populace and in the process increase awareness and encourage alternative actions on personal hygiene/sanitation in order to ensure a cleaner, healthier and safer Nigeria for all and in the end make the world a better place to live and extending our average life expectancy in Nigeria to 54 years.”
