Sanitation Indicators in the Rural Communities of the South-Eastern Nigeria: Additional Evidence of Policy Failure in Rural Development

Abstract

The study tried to examine the conditions or rural sanitation in the South-East region of Nigeria. The objective is to investigate the prevailing situation of sanitation indicators as a way of evaluating national policy outcomes in the sector. Copies of a well-structured questionnaire containing pertinent questions on socio-economic and key sanitation variables were distributed to 1062 subjects in rural communities of the five South East states of Nigeria. After collation and analysis, results showed that the problem of rural sanitation in the region is poorly understood: policy-makers have consistently focused on the improvement of water supply and public toilets at the detriment of other sanitation variables. Consequently, the study recorded poor results on personal hygiene (25%), disposal of household refuse (49.9%), water treatment before drinking (4.8%), anal cleaning with leaves/grass after toilet (18.3%), non washing of hand after toilet (55.5%) etc. The high willingness expressed by subjects to improve their sanitation (88%) shows that the major problem of sanitation in the area remains that of promotion rather than administration. These poor results on sanitation indicators in the region , the vanguard of rural development in Nigeria, have come as an additional evidence to the long list of failures recorded in the implementation of rural development policies in Nigeria.

Key Words: development, failure, indicators, policy, rural, sanitation