Vol. 4, Issue 11, Part C (2018)

Abstract
Sanitation is fundamental to the health and general wellbeing of humans in every society. Unfortunately about 1.1 billion people who lack access to improved sanitation facility in the world practice open defaecation, resulting in approximately 2.4 deaths and 7% of total disease burden. This survey was carried out to assess the availability of improved facilities in three (3) rural communities of Bayelsa State, Nigeria in 2014. The specific objectives were to determine the sanitation coverage, methods of excreta disposal and commonly reported cases of excreta related diseases. A total of 260 households were randomly selected. The design for the study was descriptive cross sectional, with the use of random sampling, questionnaire survey, oral interview and observational checklist as the means of data collection. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel version2.0 were employed for data analysis. The results were presented in frequency tables, bar charts, mean, percentages and chi square. The major findings were that 47% of the respondents interviewed had access to improved sanitation, while a larger proportion (50%) used unimproved sanitation facilities. The methods of excreta disposal adopted by the households were flush toilets used by (42%) of the respondents being the majority, followed by pit latrine (22%), open defaecation (16%), public/ communal toilets (8%) and 3% V.I.P utilization. The review of medical records at the primary health centres on prevalence of diseases revealed more malaria cases (37%), including typhoid fever (29%) and diarrhoea (12%) among the common excreta related diseases. Therefore, the study recommended urgent action by the government and all stakeholders to raise the level of awareness and increase the funding of sanitation projects to enable more people have improved excreta disposal facilities (sanitary toilets) and limit exposure or prevention of disease transmission in the state.