Abstract:

Water is central and essential to the human person. It is a necessity of life both for the rich and poor alike. For water to serve its useful purpose it must be water that is hygienically purified and without water sanitation is impossible. The general objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between girl’s education and inadequate portable water and sanitation in South-West Nigeria. The specific objectives are to discover the effect on girl’s educational achievement, and to examine its implication for empowerment. The method for collecting data was quantitative and qualitative methods. The target respondents are female students and female teachers; Ten primary schools and ten secondary schools were sampled for collecting data, twenty female students per school and ten female teachers per school, making a total of six hundred respondents. The result of the study revealed that there is an inadequate portable water and sanitation facility in South-West Nigeria. An average of one hour was used to fetch water and return home during the dry season and the distance is between one kilometre to three kilometres. This again was found to have affected the attendance of children at school. Majority of the children had the problem of excreta and refuse disposal, because there was no decent toilet in the schools and at home, hence, children used open defecation and it remains dangerous for girls.

Keywords:

Portable Water, Sanitation, Girls, Education, empowerment.