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Hostel Sanitation Practices And Its Effect On Student’s Health
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1. BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Student’s health has been a major contributing factor to their academic performances over the years because it determines the student’s ability to read and prepare for his examinations; it even defines the ability of the student to write very well inside the hall which are primary aim of a student going to school. Health defined by WHO is the level of functional and metabolic efficiency of a living organism. In humans it is the ability of individuals or communities to adapt and self-manage when facing physical, mental or social changes.
It is a widely accepted fact that students are known for their laziness and ego, many of them tend to leave their area of residence without taking care of it only to be waiting for cleaners to clean it for them but even as that the hostels are always very dirty because things are not done appropriately for example a student urinating in the front of the hostel where it shouldn’t be is indirectly calling for mosquitoes to breed around the hostel and this is also the case in the area of focus for this study, which is the University of Calabar.
Waste generation is a major cause of dirtiness in the hostel due to the large number of students and if not properly manage may cause a lot of harm than good, wastes are generated on daily basis through different activities of human being and if not disposed of properly the way it should,they lead to pollution of the environment having serious implications on the health of the students residing in the hostel (Earthwatch, 2007). Different institutional bodies have been set up at different levels for environmental sanitations and tertiary institution like the University of Calabar is of no difference so as to ensure that students waste are properly disposed in a quest for the students residing in the hostel to be in good health. In a study carried out by Ogeah and Ikelegbe (2007) reveals that students are nonchalant about the cleanliness of their hostels and their environment generally. They further illustrated that even with availability of cleaners that students contribute to the poor hostel sanitation practices and this go a long way to affect the students’ health. Students contribute to poor hostel sanitation practicesby the laziness of students to use facilities provided by the school authority for waste disposal in the hostels. Outside cleaning their rooms in the hostels most of the students feel it is humiliating for them to tidy their surroundings. Even though the University system has hired cleaners to clean the hostels these cleaners are poorly supervised and with them not doing their jobs properly the hostel surrounding becomes a breeding site for all sorts of dangerous insects and pests such as mosquito which can expose the students to malaria, tsetse fly which when a student is bitten by will cause sleeping sickness and some many more insect with different health complications, even some students go as far as urinating and defecating indiscriminately outside the hostels because they cannot clean the dirty toilets themselves and in the long run they will still come to those polluted areas to carry out their daily activities like cooking, washing of clothes etc
World Health Organization defined sanitation as the means of collecting and disposing excreta and community liquids, waste in a hygienic way so as not to endanger the health and welfare of beings and also for the social and environmental effects, it may have on people; people have been suffering from one disease to another without knowing the problems of their illness, the situation and due to distress or dirty environment (Earthwatch, 2007).
Good sanitation practices occurs where the environment is clean concurring with the School Sanitation Consultative Meeting Report (1999) which defined it as personal and universal cleanliness. Burnet (1995) clearly stated that living and learning conditions in institutions affect the critical thinking, intellectual development and aesthetic appreciation of students. In school hostels;where one of the major problems is overcrowding and this has gone a long way to affect students’ health. More than 200 students share four (4) toilets. Mostly girls in hostel have inadequate sanitation facilities. Inadequate sanitation in school hostel has jeopardized student’s health; girls in the hostel are even affected more in this situation. From the foregoing, it is of upmost importance to find out the effect of hostel sanitation practices arising as a result of the scenario on student’s health.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
Page 1 of 3
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