Achieving better sanitation for a better environment

In May 2014, Jan Eliasson, UN deputy secretary-general, made the following salient remarks: “I am moved by the fact that a child dies every two and a half minutes from diseases linked to open defecation. Those are silent deaths – not reported in the media, not the subject of public debate. Let’s not remain silent any longer.” With an estimated 2.5 billion people globally not having access to proper sanitation, including toilets or latrines, sanitation has become a ticking time bomb, especially in our dear country. As a result of inadequate toilet facilities, open defecation has remained a common practice in many nations, towns and villages. It is a practice whereby a person defecates in an open area not meant for that purpose unmindful of the health and hygienic consequences of such habit.

Nigeria is a silver medallist when it comes to the issue of open defecation, with India as number one in the world. Just recently, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that 33 million Nigerians have no access to decent toilets. As a consequence, said the report, these citizens of Africa’s most populous nation answer the call of nature in the open. The problem of inadequate toilets is a reality that no one can hide as it is still so common to see people on the highways disembarking from their cars to defecate openly along the road. Walking along the railroad tracks even gives one a more panoramic view of things as people, male and female, engage in mass open defecation. On our streets, behind bushes, in groves, in rivers or streams, inside gutters, dumpsites, in rocky communities, motor parks, markets and what have you, people practically and shamelessly litter our surroundings with defecation. Even some of the fanciest areas are not exempt.

Out of about one billion people that still practice open defecation worldwide, about 49 million are Nigerians while 600 million reside in India. It is, however, estimated that around 68 million Nigerians are likely to be added between now and 2025 if concerted efforts were not made to arrest the problem. According to Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2011, Ekiti State contributes highest to open defecation practice in the country with 60.8 percent, followed by Plateau and Oyo States with 56.2 and 54.0 percent, respectively. Abia State has the lowest rate followed by Lagos at 1.2 and 2.0 percent, respectively. Kano State has 4.0 percent; Zamfara 9.8 percent; Benue 52.5 percent; and Kwara 50.5 percent.

It is in recognition of the aforementioned scenario that one considers the theme of the recently concluded World Toilet Day, ‘Better Sanitation, Better  Nutrition’, as very apt and an eye opener for people to understand the link between how we do our excreta and other sanitation issues, the food we eat and our health. There is, of course, an undeniable, even if largely uncalculated, health cost for practice of open defecation. Often, hawkers of food in Nigerian major cities stand close to feculent, fly-infested gutters and sites of public urination and defecation. God alone knows how many people, especially children, the elderly and the ailing, are gravely sickened by contacts with fruits and other kinds of food bought off disease-stalked streets.

This is why from highest level of governments to even the poor masses in remotest rural areas, there is urgent need to join Jan Eliasson in the campaign to break the silence on open defecation and give sanitation the priority it deserves in our national life. Consequently, the content of the recently developed national roadmap for elimination of open defecation should be followed to the letter. It is good that seven states (Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Edo and Delta) have followed suit to develop their respective states’ roadmaps. Efforts of UNICEF B field office on this are commendable as well. In this era of change mantra, everyone has a moral obligation to end open defecation and a sacred duty to ensure women and girls are not at the risk of assault and rape simply because they lack a sanitation facility.

In this light, it is cheering that Lagos State has developed its roadmap to end open defecation with commitment in mobilizing blighted areas of the state to own and use toilets. In the state, greater attention is now being given to problems related to open defecation as well as emphasis on the importance of broader WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) issues, such as access to clean drinking water. What is now required to achieve the target is functional state system that will trigger the process, active role by the corporate organizations and ingenuity on the part of citizens, especially the unemployed and underemployed youths.

There is now an urgent need for governments at all levels and relevant stakeholders to make available more public conveniences, especially across major roads and public spaces. Since it might not be feasible for government to embark on mass provision of required number of public toilets, it is, therefore, important for entrepreneurs to see the business opportunity in investing in such enterprise. They should take a cue from the business exploit of late Otunba Gaddafi, whose open toilet enterprise singlehandedly drew many people’s attention to the inherent business opportunity obtainable in that direction as he practically turned ‘shit business’ to ‘serious business’. The business he reportedly began with the sum of N60,000 now earns in excess of N120 million annually. Through his foray into the public toilet business, a new culture of awareness of the importance of public toilet evolved in Lagos. For instance, if you have rented a facility to organise an event, you will be asked by the owners of the venue for a receipt showing that you have also rented a mobile toilet for the event. This is an additional guarantee that the location will be kept neat. Without the receipt, you are not likely to be allowed the use of that hall for your event.

If we are to achieve the culture of better sanitation for a better environment, well-meaning organisations and individuals must bring their ingenuity on board, as the late Otunba Gaddafi did. This is a major way forward.

RASAK MUSBAU