Aspectos positivos y negativos de la programación televisiva y de publicidad en

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CHAPTER FOUR

CHILD MORTALITY IN IBADANLAND

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mortality. In other words, if a high percentage of the populace in Ibadan has access to potable water and effective sewerage connection, then child mortality rate would be reduced. In the same vein, if the government participates fully in delivering potable water and effective sewage connection, Ibadan 62 per 1000 child mortality rate¹ would be drastically reduced.

Osinusi (2007) writes that twenty percent of the over one billion people of the world who lack access to clean water live in sub-Saharan Africa and that 2.4 billion people lack access to proper waste disposal.² Since about 50%³ of Ibadan‘s population lack access to potable water, people are left with the option of obtaining water from unhygienic sources. The consequence is an increase in debilitating illnesses such as typhoid fever and cholera, and, therefore, an increase in the rate of child death in Ibadan.

One of the unhygienic sources which people obtain water from is water vendors. Although, Water Tankers‘ Operators claim they obtain the water they vend from hygienic sources, it is a well known fact that majority of them collect water from nearby streams. The water from streams is contaminated by bacteriae that cause infectious diseases that lead to child death. It is to avoid such mortality that nursing mothers are strongly advised not to feed their babies with water, but to breast feed them exclusively for the first six months.⁴

In a conversation with Popoola Oluwafemi, a medical practitioner at the University College Hospital Ibadan, he explains that nursing mothers are advised to desist from feeding their babies with baby milk formula, and other food items until the babies are four months old. The reason is that many illiterate women are likely to utilize water collected from wells and other unhealthy sources to feed their babies without purifying it. The children soon get infected with diarrhea or cholera, which, according to Popoola Oluwafemi, are leading causes of child mortality in Ibadan.

1 Shi, Anqing, 2000, How Access to Urban Potable Water and Sewerage Connections Affects Child Mortality, World Bank Development Research Group, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No 2274, Social Science Electronic Publishing, Washington D.C, United States.

2 Osinusi Kikelomo, 2007, Environment and Child Health, Archives of Ibadan Medicine vol 8, 2

3 Ibid

4 This does not negate the fact that nursing mothers should naturally breast their babies exclusively for the first six months because breast milk contains all the necessary nutrients a baby needs for that period.

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As a matter of fact, Popoola Oluwafemi further explains that a high incidence of child death recorded at the University College Hospital between 1980 and 1990, resulted from diarrhea and cholera. Majority of the children who succumbed to these diseases belonged to illiterate mothers. These women are not knowledgeable about the dangers involved in utilizing water obtained from unhealthy sources.

Other unhygienic sources where people collect water from, are wells and nearby streams. Although water from deep wells is pure, the case is different when the wells are in overcrowded areas of Ibadan in which the housing is typically in bad conditions. People obtain water from these sources, especially when they cannot afford buying water from water vendors. Many people who use water from these sources do not purify it. Therefore it becomes easy for children to get infected with water-borne diseases.

Another point to consider is that majority of the people in Ibadan who lack access to potable water and effective sewerage connections also lack other infrastructures such as effective sanitation services, adequate housing conditions, free education, regular power supplies and free medical services for children less than 6. These are infrastructures that should cushion the effects of health and economic challenges facing the people. These sets of people who live in the densely populated areas of Ibadan such as Oje, Bere, Mokola and Sango are worst hit. And Shi concludes: people who live in cities enjoy clean and potable water as well as other infrastructures such as needed for survival. And people who live in rural areas lack infrastructures such as effective sanitation services, adequate housing conditions, free education, regular power supplies and free medical services for children less than 6. Therefore, their health is negatively affected.

This is to say that although Ibadan is a city; some of these densely populated and unplanned areas in Ibadan can be compared to rural areas, in terms of the unavailability of social amenities such as pipe-borne water and electricity.

The World Health Organization¹ shows that lack of access to potable water in sub-Saharan Africa, and other continents, is known to be a cause of child death.

1UN-Habitat Collaborative agencies: WHO (World Health Organization)/ UNDESA (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs), 2003, Cities: Competing Needs in an Urban Environment, pg 160-187. Earthscan Publications, London.

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Puffer, R.R. and C.V. Serrano (1973) ¹ also demonstrate that a high percentage of households in Latin American cities with cases of child death do not have access to potable water supply. The World Health Organization² (1978), Schultz³ (1980) and Feachem⁴ (1981) link access to potable water, effective sewerage system and child mortality. These are causes of child mortality, in Ibadan.