“Across African countries, national child health was lowest when water
quality, improved sanitation, air quality, and environmental
performance were lowest."
Child mortality in Nigeria and other African countries has been
empirically linked to air pollutants, unclean water, poor sanitation,
large household sizes, and environmental degradation.
This is according to a study published by Flinders University in Australia.
“Across African countries, national child health was lowest when water
quality, improved sanitation, air quality, and environmental
performance were lowest,” said Professor Corey Bradshaw, one of those
involved in the study.
”We have also provided the first empirical evidence that large
households are linked to worsening child health outcomes in developing
nations.”
Bradshaw, who is with the global ecology lab at Flinders University,
believes better access to clean water, sanitation services, and family
planning, would reduce the preventable deaths of newborns and children
under five.
“In most regions of Africa, this result suggests that environmental
degradation is possibly now already at a point where it is
compromising food production, water or air quality, or defense against
infectious disease,” he pointed out.
In Nigeria, the value of under-five deaths in the country has been
dropping since the World Health Organisation began compiling the data.
In 2015, the figure was 125.4, in 2016, it was 123.9, in 2017, it was
122.1 and in 2018, 119.9 persons died per every one thousand children
under five years old.