Nigeria’s waterways sustain millions from fishermen, traders, and families alike. From the bustling fish markets of Akwa Ibom to the grills in Lagos, fish is more than food, it is tradition, livelihood, and pride. Yet, hidden behind the smoke and flavor lies a hidden cost: parasites carried into our food chain through poor sanitation and weak waste management.
This is not speculation. It is already here. Fish samples collected from Niger Delta’s estuaries frequently host parasites linked to diarrheal diseases, anemia, and other health burdens. The cause is not the fish. The cause is us.
Nigeria still battles staggering sanitation gaps. UNICEF estimates that 48 million Nigerians practice open defecation. Open defecation and poor waste disposal seed rivers with parasites. Weak sanitation systems allow them to thrive. The result is fishermen haul the catch. Traders smoke and sell it. Families buy and eat it. An invisible chain of contamination passes from gutters to grills.
The stakes are high. Poor sanitation does not only affect health. It strikes livelihoods. Fishermen lose when buyers distrust local fish. Productivity drops, families spend heavily treating avoidable illnesses. Children’s education suffers from preventable infections.
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The tragedy is that Nigeria is not without policies, multiple policies exists like The National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy (2000), the 2016 Roadmap to End Open Defecation, and the National Action Plan for the Revitalization of WASH (2018–2030) . The country even set a beautiful target to end open defecation by 2025, that deadline is just months away, and yet too many communities remain without toilets, functional waste systems, or consistent awareness campaigns. Investment in sanitation infrastructure remains widely inadequate. Rural areas often receive little more than sporadic pilot projects while urban centers see projects initiated but abandoned.
Here lies the gap: policies on paper, still parasites on our plates.
We cannot afford to keep treating sanitation as an afterthought. Toilets are not infrastructure luxuries, they are health defenses. Waste disposal is not optional, it is survival. Every open drain clogged with refuse is an entry point for parasites into our food chain.
The solutions are not mysterious. Changing this narrative requires reframing sanitation as a public health emergency rather than a development afterthought. Partnerships are essential. Government cannot act alone. Ministries of health, environment, and education must collaborate, not work in isolation. Local governments must invest in functional and affordable community toilets. Advocacy must extend beyond World Toilet Day speeches into sustained action. Religious and traditional leaders must be at the frontline of behavior change, challenging norms around open defecation. Importantly, monitoring must go beyond counting toilets built. We must measure impact; how many people changed behavior, how many communities became open defecation free, how many children were spared infection?.
Civil society, media, and academia have roles to play. Through research, storytelling, and grassroots engagement, we can bridge the gap between policy and practice by continously amplifying the sanitation versus health link until it becomes a kitchen-table issue.
But we must go further. Building toilets is not enough. They must be usable, maintained, and culturally acceptable. Communities must see them not as “projects” but as essential tools for dignity and safety. Awareness must be measured not by the number of jingles aired, but by whether families actually change practices, reduce infections, and protect their food chain.
We cannot keep pushing deadlines while families pay the price. The fish on our grills should never be symbols of hidden danger. They should be symbols of nourishment, pride, and safe livelihoods. To get there, Nigeria must bridge the gap between policies on paper and realities on the ground.
Sanitation is not glamorous. It rarely makes front page news, but the grilled fish at the roadside stand should be a symbol of nourishment, not a silent risk. Clean environments protect more than just fish, they protect lives.
Iyebuk Uko is a public health researcher, Science Policy Communication and Fellow with the Nigeria Health Watch.
