The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday advised Nigerians to use soap or ash and running water to was hands after defecation to prevent infection and illness.
Mr Bioye Ogunjobi, a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Specialist with UNICEF, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
Ogunjobi said that using water alone is not proper hand washing technique as it could not totally clean the hand.
According to him, faeces is oily and cannot easily come off after using tissue paper or water to clean-up after defecation.
“Proper hand washing means using soap and running water. This is important because when you put water in a bowl to wash your hand, your hand will not be clean because the same dirty water is being used.
“In some rural communities, they use ash which is also a cleaning reagent. It works.
“Why it is important for you to use running water and soap after defecation is because faeces is oily and even when you use tissue paper or water to clean up, it will still stick to your fingers and it takes running water, soap or ash to take it out.