Assessment of Compliance with Mandatory Government Policy on Environmental Sanitation in a Nigerian Urban Area

Objective: Poor sanitation is estimated to be responsible for about 432,000 deaths annually in low- and middle-income countries. Widespread pollution and poor public health conditions in many areas of Nigeria led to an authoritarian military regime's introduction of mandatory monthly sanitation day. Since Nigeria transitioned to a democratic government in 1999, the enforcement of “Sanitation Day” has dwindled. We aimed to assess the compliance of Akure residents with the mandatory monthly environmental sanitation policy in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) aimed at ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Methods: We adopted a cross-sectional study design and sampled 314 adults in Akure – an urban area in Nigeria. We used a semi-structured, pre-tested questionnaire which was developed after reviewing existing information on environmental sanitation for data collection. Results: We found 219 (69.7%) residents reported compliance with the sanitation policy. Age, gender, ethnicity, occupation, education, house ownership, co-residence with the house owner, and perception of the effectiveness of government policy were significantly associated with environmental sanitation compliance. However, the binary logistic model shows that older age, female gender, non-Yoruba ethnicity, unemployment status, house ownership, and perception of the effectiveness of government policies are significant predictors of environmental sanitation compliance. Conclusion: Our study showed relatively high compliance with the sanitation policy. The government needs to improve on monitoring sanitation policy compliance, not only in urban areas but especially in rural areas.