Stakeholders in the environment and health sectors have decried the low male participation in water and sanitation programmes in the country. Some sanitation officials, who spoke in Abuja recently, stressed the need for increased participation of men.
One of the respondents, Mimi Ishan, a health worker, said she had observed in her work with communities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) that women show more interest and commitment than men.
“Women are always well mobilised. They’re cooperative, they show interest; they love the work and participate fully.”
Ishan noted that the near absence of men in sanitation activities had put a lot of constraints on the women’s ability to do more, saying “women’s major constraint is that their male counterparts do not show up in most meetings. A few of them come; maybe two out of 10, and that discourages us.”
She therefore urged the men to cultivate sanitation habit in order to maintain a healthy environment, adding that “the men need to be convinced. They need to embrace these programmes to move the community forward,” and that sanitation was key to a healthy living.
Another respondent, Aisha Bakpet, an official of Primary Healthcare Development Board, said with the introduction of the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) programme in many rural communities, the men folk ought to have embraced it.
“Mobilisation and advocacy has been done, but we are still having the challenge of getting men on-board. The women turn up to attend trainings but the men are not coming and these are community settlements that we need everybody’s involvement,’’ Bakpet declared.
She noted that out of a 100 percent of the population that attended workshops, 99 percent were women.
Similarly, Monday Osasah, the CLTS project coordinator in the FCT, confirmed that male participation had been a challenge, saying “we try to engage with the traditional councils for support; we are doing our best to ensure that the men are involved; we are wooing more men to join.’’
However, some men who spoke on the situation attributed their non-participation to the fact that they were the breadwinners in the family.
“Men participation is low because majority of the men are workers; most of them do not have time for some of these things,” Yusuf Ahmed, a resident of Apo District, stated. NAN
