Title:
ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION PRACTICES IN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY- ABUJA

Authors:
Prof. Daniel D. Dabi, Dr. Leonard Bombom, Mr. Stephen Maren, Mrs Esther Englama and Mr. Adams Baba Ibrahim, Nigeria

Abstract:
Most households are polluted with waste garbage, due to the poor sanitation habits. Several studies have examined the phenomenon, and reported that the use of different environmental sanitation practices and community based sanitation are key to achieving sustainable environmental sanitation. However, these areas are yet unexplored in the study area. The objectives of this study is therefore, to; examine the existing environmental sanitation practices in FCT-Abuja and determine the level of awareness on the impacts of poor environmental sanitation hygiene. Questionnaire were subjected to analyses using mean score Chi-square and Mann-Whitney U test. The findings reveal that the respondents in household sectors 40% were male and 60% were female which shows majority of the respondents were female and their knowledge of interaction with the subject of study is not shallow as most of them do the home care cleaning. Mann-Whitney U test was used to test hypothesis one, which states that there is no significance difference between male and female participation in environmental sanitation practices in the study area. The results show the mean rank participation for male and female in environmental sanitation practices in the FCT to be 10.64 and 12.36 respectively. The Mann-Whitney coeffient is 51.000 the assmptotic significance is 0.524. The result indicated that female participation in environmental sanitation practices is greater than the male. Fx (12.36) > M x (10.64). Since the calculated P-Value 0.524 is greater than 0.05 at 95% confidence level we accept the null hypothesis and conclude that there is no significance difference between the mean ranks participation of male and female in environmental sanitation practices in FCT-Abuja. The study also determined the level of awareness of respondents on the impact of poor environmental sanitation hygiene. Chi-square calculated value of 0.13 with 390 as the degree of freedom at 0.05 level of significance. The alternative hypothesis which state that there is no significance difference in the level of awareness of respondents on the impact of poor environmental sanitation is accepted. Which mean there is no significant difference in the level of awareness of respondents on the impact of poor environmental sanitation hygiene in the FCT. Therefore, the paper recommend that policies that would promote sound environmental education should be put in place in order to educate the populace and enlighten them on the importance of environmental sanitation in the FCT and the need to legislate some of the environmental laws on sanitation in the FCT.