Open defecation: A gateway to diseases

The unwholesome practice of open defecation has unleashed a near health emergency in the country as diseases like cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea are on the rise. In spite of efforts of some local and international Non Governmental Organisations to curb the practice by providing mobile toilets, government agencies have been paying lip service to it. In the Federal Capital Territory(FCT), the Abuja Environmental Protection Board(AEPB) has been promising and failing and to eliminate the practice, as JOSEPHINE ELLA-EJEH reports

Open defecation is prevalent in many developing countries of the world and it constitutes serious health problems in densely populated areas, such as rural communities, informal settlements and even urban settlements. In the United Nation’s global ranking, India ranks the highest country whose population defecate openly.

Similarly, Nigeria occupies the 5th position in this unenviable League of Nations. In Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), people urinating or passing faeces at corners around major streets in Wuse, Utako, Garki and Gwarimpa as well as highbrow areas like Jabi and Maitama are a common sight.

Why people defecate openly
The unending mass influx of people into the city and the near absence of public toilet facilities is largely responsible for this dirty habit in the capital city. On a daily basis, thousands of people who have no residence, troop into the FCT, where they cannot afford the exorbitant house rents. As a result, they squat in makeshift structures, uncompleted buildings, abandoned vehicles, motor parks, market places.

At night or when they want to ease themselves, these category of people find the next available space to answer the call of nature. For this reason, it is practically impossible to walk along bush paths, streets, fields, walk ways, even culvert in both rural and urban settlements across the country, including Abuja, without having to close one’s nose because they ooze putrid odour.

In the capital city, places like Area One Roundabout, Garki, Okonjo Iweala Street in Utako, Julius Berger Bus stop, Mabushi Roundabout to mention just a few, have gained notoriety for this.

FCT not complementing NGOs
Some residents of the satellite towns live in homes without toilet facilities. For this reason, many people just convert any available corner to toilets and the authorities look the other way.

Although local and international Non Governmental Organisations(NGOs) have been at the forefront of battling against open defecation in the FCT, Blueprint Weekend’s investigations indicate that relevant government agencies are doing little to complement their efforts. In the last five years, they have been promising and failing to provide enough toilets in the Federal Capital Territory.

In 2014 , the then Head, Information and Public Outreach of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, (AEPB), Mr Joe Ukairo had admitted to this failure. According to him, ‘’we quite know that the available ones may not be adequate because of the influx of people into the FCT. The demography of FCT is now challenging because a lot of people are trooping into the FCT and these must not be translated negatively.”

About three years ago, Mr Ukairo had assured that the Board is partnering with the private sector to deploy more public toilets to the FCT as government cannot handle the project alone owing to lack of resources.

As yet, the situation has not improved and last week, Blueprint Weekend spoke with Alhaji Muktar Ibrahim, the present Head, Information and Public Outreach of AEPB. According to him, open defecation in the city has assumed a very embarrassing dimension. He admitted that AEPA had earlier promised to provide public toilets in the FCT to curb the unwholesome practice, adding that ‘’it is actually a shame.”

Managing the problem
However, as part of the strategy to manage the menace, the board has also resolved that all public building ought to provide conveniences which customers can use so that they can walk into a supermarket for instance or even fuel station to use their toilets.

“We discovered some instances where fuel station locked up their conveniences that are supposed to serve the customers, we will keep enlightening them to ensure that they open it for customers’’, he explained.

Beyond that, the FCT administration is also working on this idea of providing public toilet , not just a mobile toilet or the common movable toilets, but to build new ones at strategic places, he added.

Vector of diseases
Apart from the odour that the emit, urine and faeces are also fertile grounds for germs. According to records, one gram of faeces can contain 10million viruses, 1 million bacteria and 1,000 parasite cysts. These statistics, Mr Trevor Mulaudzi, one of South Africa’s most outspoken “toilet activists” and a member of the World Toilet Organisation (WTO) experts, said is very alarming.

With indiscriminate open defecation, he argued that it is extremely difficult for people to avoid ingesting human waste. This, according to experts, explains the alarming increase in cases of cholera, typhoid, , diarrhoea, tuberculosis and polio, hepatitis among others in areas prone to open defecation.

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