At Green Action Week 2025, HELWEI calls for urgent action on water, sanitation, and food safety in Alimosho’s peri-urban communities
By Bunmi Yekini
In an effort to improve WASH and Food safety in Nigeria markets, Healthy Living and Women Empowerment Initiative (HELWEI) brought together media practitioners, civil society actors, and public health officials in a one-day stakeholders meeting to mark Green Action Week 2025 with the theme “Sharing Community”.
The initiative, branded “Kick Dirt, Hug Life!”, is a bold campaign aimed at protecting consumers, restoring food safety, and reducing preventable illnesses linked to poor sanitation and hygiene.
“We Do Not Have Planet B”
In her welcome address, Mrs. Eberechukwu Okey-Onyema, Executive Director of HELWEI, set the tone.
“We are here today because we want to have a bigger house, bringing our voices together to address sanitation, hygiene, and food safety in markets,” she said. “Whether you shop in supermarkets or roadside stalls, your food still passes through the market. This is a conversation that must be provoked.”
She stressed that Lagos’s bustling traditional markets, from Ikotun to Alagbado, remain plagued by poor drainage, indiscriminate waste disposal, and lack of toilets.
“We do not have Planet B. If we do not work together, we all lose. That is why we must kick out dirt in our traditional markets to ensure healthy lives for all,” she added.
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A Dire Public Health Picture
Statistics presented at the event painted a grim reality. According to the WASH NORMS 2024 report, only 17% of Nigerians have access to basic water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services, and a shocking 4% of traditional markets are equipped with functional water or toilet facilities.
This crisis directly fuels cholera, typhoid, and diarrheal diseases. In 2021 alone, Nigeria recorded 111,062 cholera cases and 3,604 deaths. Lagos State also struggles with water scarcity, producing only 210 million gallons daily against a demand of 720 million gallons.
The consequences are stark for children. Data from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS 2023) shows 40% of children under five are stunted nationwide, while Lagos’s peri-urban areas record high rates of underweight and wasting linked to food contamination and unsafe water.
Peri-Urban Communities Under Siege
Delivering the keynote on behalf of Prof. Modupe Akinyinka, public health physician at LASUTH, Dr. Anifowose Aderinsola explained why peri-urban communities like Alimosho bear the highest burden.
“These are overcrowded, fast-growing suburbs with limited infrastructure. Poor sanitation, open defecation, and unsafe water sources create a vicious cycle of malnutrition, diarrheal disease, and death—especially among children under five and women,” she said.
She warned that if not addressed, the situation could derail Nigeria’s efforts to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on hunger, health, clean water, and climate resilience.
The Role of the Media
Speakers at the roundtable repeatedly emphasised the critical role of the press.
“The media must become champions for safer markets,” Mrs. Okey-Onyema declared. “Through investigative reporting, citizen storytelling, and agenda-setting, you can shift public opinion and hold duty-bearers accountable.”
Dr. Aderinsola echoed this call, noting that journalists have the power to “shape perception, transform behaviour, and provide platforms for accountability.”
Voices of Solidarity
Representing the Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), Lady Urenma Onyekuru affirmed the coalition’s support:
“The marketplace needs to be kept clean, physically and otherwise. When we embrace cleanliness, we embrace life. That is why we stand with HELWEI in this advocacy.”
A panel session followed, featuring representatives of the media, Civil Society Organisations, and nutrition advocates. They highlighted the issues, challenges, and also came up with recommendations, all underscoring the urgency of synergised advocacy.
What Comes Next?
HELWEI announced a three-phase follow-up to the Lagos media roundtable:
- Community Dialogues with market women, CDAs, and regulators to co-create solutions.
- A Road Walk across Lagos markets to mobilise citizens and demand government action.
- Targeted Behaviour Change Campaigns to entrench hygiene practices at the grassroots.
The campaign, supported by Consumers International and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), also issued a five-point call to action: increased WASH financing, stronger inter-agency collaboration, robust behaviour change interventions, regulatory enforcement, and mobilising the media as accountability drivers.
A Collective Commitment
For HELWEI, the message is clear: every clean market saves a life.
“At a time when Nigeria faces food insecurity and economic strain, we cannot afford dirty markets,” Mrs. Okey-Onyema stressed. “Every safe environment feeds a future. That is why we say: Kick Dirt, Hug Life!”