ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION AND IMPLICATION ON THE HEALTH OF THE CHILDREN IN THE RURAL AREA IN EKITI
1.1 Background of Study
Environment, sanitation and health are inextricably interlinked. An environment with poor amenities such as polluted air, poor sanitation, unkempt drinking water and poor housing, has been seen to have a negative effect on the health status of individuals and wellbeing of people. Such places have added to communicable disease and also in the prolonging of epidemiological transition. Physical environmental factors and socio-cultural issues which are cumulative also lead to disease of greater burden. The environment in the medical sense includes what affects an organism with regards to influence and condition and also the surroundings. For the purpose of this paper, environment by the International Epidemiological Association can be defined as “All that which is external to the human host. This can be divided into physical, biological, social, cultural, etc., any or all of which can influence health status of populations.” From this definition, anything that is not genetic would be included in the environment. However, this can be argued because considering genes for instance whether in the short or long term, they are influenced by the environment. Looking the globe as a whole, the health burden is on the increase; even the so-called developed world deal with pollutants that emerge every now and then which pose a considerable threat to human health. Urbanization is on an alarming rate in the developing countries. In 2001, according to the United Nations, Nigeria had a population of 167 million which affected the housing demand in the urban area. As such, haphazard development for new migrants or less privileged ones has resulted in slum development. In contrast to this background study, there is the crucial need for action to aid with the reduction of environmental health burden within the rural areasof the country. The rural or slum development is commonly seen in developing countries. This has built up problems that can be witnessed in different urban centres where infrastructure provided lag behind in city expansion and population growth. The group which is most vulnerable to environmental burdens is the occupants of the rural area.
