Sanitation Support Boosts Recovery for Flood-affected Families
Water and toilet facilities at the Gubio Internally displaced people (IDP)Camp Maiduguri is improving health outcomes for families affected by flood in northeast Nigeria.
He was 70 years old, blind and unforgettable.
This was how Bwehsunshak Mallo, a medical practitioner caring for patients at a UNICEF-supported clinic at the Gubio IDP Camp in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, described the septuagenarian who brought his three-year-old son for medical treatment last month.
I don’t know how he managed to get here, said Bwehsunshak, 28. But the image of a visually impaired old man, who cared enough to get medical care for his son will stay with me for a long time. This is hard to believe, but not everyone around here cares that much for their children. The son had malaria-like symptoms, and I was glad that I was able to support him and his father, added Bwehsunshak.
Bwehsunshak is one of the many doctors volunteering at a UNICEF-supported clinic in the camp which hosts over 30,000 people displaced by recent floods.
In September, when the Alau Dam waters invaded the city and displaced an initial 400,000 people, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Borno State Government, initiated sanitary and medical care for the IDPs scattered across different camps in the city.
The UNICEF, with support from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (UN CERF) and the Canadian Government, is providing medication and stipends to frontline workers supporting displaced women and children affected by flood and cholera at the Gubio camp, the only IDP camp still functional.
Initially, the pressure was too much on the first clinic which is located near the gate of the camp. The traffic at the clinic was too much. It is also about a 10-minute walk from here which could be discouraging to some people. This second clinic has not only helped decongest the initial flow of the displaced, but it has also brought health care closer to the people living within the heart of the camp, added Bwehsunshak.
According to her, the most common ailments remain malaria, diarrhoea and malnutrition. “When I became a volunteer here about a month ago, I was seeing around 60 patients per day. Fortunately, the number has now reduced to between 30 and 40 patients,’’ she added.
Bwehsunshak attributes this to the practical preventive messages provided to patients at the clinic, aided by a functional water supply and sanitation system.
Providing medical care alone is not enough. The availability and proximity of water points and toilet facilities have helped to improve the health outcomes of our patients. It makes it easier to disinfect the facility and practice handwashing with soap. This clinic is in the interior of the camp, and it would have been difficult to work here if the cleaners had to trek just to fetch water, said Bwehsunshak.
Across the world, overcrowding and overstretched facilities are often the hallmarks of displaced persons’ camps. This often puts residents at the risk of disease outbreaks and cross-infection. With funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), UNICEF has constructed over 250 emergency latrines and showers inside the camps for people affected by such floods. This has helped to reduce the incidence of open defecation and contamination of water sources.
Rehabilitation of existing boreholes and water trucking services have also facilitated the availability of clean water.
The water pipelines have been reorganised and diverted into the recesses of the UNICEF camp to serve the needs of households and clinics.
The water points and toilet serving the clinic have made my work easier at the camp. It has made health education and hygiene promotion easier, added Bwehsunshak.
Under UNICEF’s flood response programme, supported by the FCDO, over 40,000 people here have gained access to safe water supply across different camps for people displaced due to flooding. These UNICEF-aided pipelines are now the very lifelines that give hope to those impacted by climate change in Northeast Nigeria.
