Perception, Level of Awareness And Involvement Of Students From Tertiary Institutions In Environmental Sanitation

Abstract

Sanitation and personal hygiene are significant to healthy living, growth and development. Environmental sanitation in tertiary institutions is shaped by the availability of sanitary infrastructure and students’ knowledge and behavioural practices. This study was designed to assess the students’ perception of residential sanitation conditions, awareness of environmental sanitation, and sanitation-related behaviours in four tertiary institutions in Delta State, Nigeria. A community-based descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 320 undergraduate students selected through purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Date was collected using a pretested 28-item questionnaire and analysed with descriptive statistics and independent-samples t-test. The analysis shows that the respondents were equally distributed by sex (male = 160, female = 160) and that sanitation infrastructure was generally perceived as inadequate and susceptible to overcrowding. Although toilets and bathrooms were available across the surveyed institutions, 63.8% indicated that a toilet and bathroom served 1-5 rooms, whereas 51.2% rated their condition as fair and 19.1% considered them as poorly maintained. Male residential halls were more congested, with an estimated 26 students per toilet/bathroom facility compared with 20 in female halls. Water supply was available but 36.3% considered the supplied water as non-portable for direct consumption. Sanitation-related practices varied between genders, as most female respondents cleaned their rooms every weekend, flushed toilets often and washed their hands after defecation, compared with the reported percentage for the male counterparts. Sanitation awareness was relatively high as majority consented that they had prior knowledge of environmental sanitation. However, the level of knowledge differed significantly between genders (p = 0.019), as female students demonstrated greater sanitation knowledge than the male students. The study revealed a mismatch between students’ awareness and the sanitary conditions of the residential halls, and the study recommends the provision of adequate sanitation and sanitary facilities to cater for the increasing numbers of students, make provision for adequate and decent residential buildings for on-campus students, institute the appropriate mechanism that would discourage squatting among the students and mind-set-based reorientation of the students to improve sanitation behaviour.