KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION AMONG HOUSEHOLDS

KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION AMONG HOUSEHOLDS

Background to the Study

Environmental sanitation is becoming a major threat to the health of households due to poor maintenance of the environment. It is recognized as a major threat to the promotion of hygiene among households in Bauchi State and even the survival of the households. Environmental sanitation is a set of actions or a fundamental process of collecting and safely disposing all kinds of waste within the environment with the intention of protecting and promoting the individual quality of life in communities. Environmental sanitation generally includes the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of waste, the maintenance of hygienic conditions and the prevention of diseases (World Health Organization, 2017). Knowledge of environmental Sanitation is one of the basic determinants of quality of life and human development index (Sheethal & Shashikantha, 2016). Controlling environmental sanitation plays a key role in improving human health and environmental pollutants that have specific diversity which can put at risk all physical, mental and social health of the human being. Given to the personal hygiene and environmental sanitation has particular importance (Almasi, Dargahi, Mohammadi, Asadi, Porsadeghiyan, Mohammadi & Rostam, 2017). Mohamad, Muhamad and Gufran (2017) stated that less knowledge about environmental sanitation management can affect the lifestyle of the households which will be reflected in their attitude. Hence more The attitude of households who do not care about the environment will affect the behavior of a clean and healthy lifestyle of the community. Environmental Sanitation is not just limited to cleanliness and proper waste disposal or management,it is rather multifaceted proper housing, food handling, portable water, drainage systems, and hygiene education among others. Therefore, with all these counted strategies, the environment could be 2 free of wastes pollutants (Anthony, 2017). The key to human health lies largely in his environment. In fact, much of human illness can be traced to adverse environmental factors such as water, soil and air pollution, poor housing conditions, presence of animal reservoir and insect vectors of diseases which pose threats to human health (Ibanga, 2015). Often, man is responsible for the pollution of his Environment through urbanization, industrialization and other human activities (Ekong, 2015). The word sanitation is defined as a way of life that is expressed in the clean home, farm, business, neighborhoods, and community (Park, 2011). Sanitation is one of the basic factor which decisively affects the nature or outcome of quality life of human development (Sheethal & Shashikantha, 2016). It is a fundamental requirement to ensure safe health, environment and the overall wellbeing of the society unless proper functional sanitation facilities are in use complemented with the right types of hygiene behaviours, communities will be vulnerable to recurrent incidences of environmental sanitationrelated diseases (Chariar & Sakthivel, 2011). World Health Organization (2012) also defined sanitation as the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and feces. Alabi (2010) on the other hand refers to the word 'sanitation' to the maintenance of hygienic conditions through services such as garbage collection and waste-water disposal. Poor sanitation is a major cause of disease worldwide and improving sanitation is known to have a significant beneficial impact on health both in households and across communities. In addition, environmental sanitation is the control of all those factors in man‘s physical environment which exercise or may exercise a deleterious effect on his physical development, health, and survival. It could also be seen as the principle and practice of effecting healthful and hygienic conditions in the environment to promote public health and welfare improve quality of life and ensure a sustainable environment (Alabi, 2010). Environmental Sanitation practice is heavily influenced by the household‘s knowledge and 3 attitudes towards it (Mohd &Malik, 2017). Lack of appropriate information on knowledge attitude and practices of environmental sanitation is an impediment to identify priority needs (Rafiq & Itrat, 2017).The term environment comprised both physical and socio-cultural components. The physical components include non-living (land, water, and air), living things (plants, animals, human beings, micro-organisms) and man-made features which include human settlement and all associated infrastructures such as roads, footpaths, farms, and buildings. The socio-cultural components include social, economic, cultural, educational, religious, relationships among others. The physical environment is where human beings live as household and provide the resources and ecological processes which make life possible (Ukwe, 2008). Households are a group of people living together in a common residence or apartment as consuming units in a physical environment. The daily household activities and consumptions practice are bases of waste generation. Wastes are consequences of human activities which involves the production of goods and services and the consumption of natural resources (Ukwe, 2004). The wastes are discarded as useless and unwanted. Two major types of wastes commonly generated in Nigerian households are decayed organic wastes such as food remnants, leaves and animals. Non-decayed inorganic wastes such as tins, cans, synthetic wrappings plastic containers, glasses and cellophane bags (Ahia, 2000). Sanitation is a serious issue that is affecting most parts of the world especially the developing countries. On a global scale, the most affected are children who in most cases lose their lives due to diseases caused by poor sanitation. It is expected that when the environmental sanitation standards of a nation improve, there will be upliftment in the living condition, health and security for the inhabitants. Thus, there will be an improvement in the quality and aesthetic of the environment at large thereby making it habitable (Owoeye, 2013)

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