NAN-AE-1
Toilets
By Tosin Kolade
Abuja, July 6, 2017 (NAN) Some residents of Abuja, the Federal Capital City (FCT), have called on FCT Administration (FCTA) to construct toilets in public places across the city to reduce increasing rate of open defecation.
A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent, who went round the city on Thursday, observed that public toilets were non-existent in the public places, as the residents left to look for alternative spots to answer the call of nature.
Mr Mudashiru Akintunde, a teacher, told NAN that it was regrettable that in Abuja, the nation’s seat of power, open defecation was still being practised.
He said that since Nigeria was a signatory to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it was necessary for the government to begin to implement programmes and policies that would promote an inclusive society.
He said with the practice of open defecation in parts of the society, the overall wellbeing of the populace was in jeopardy, as open defecation was the leading cause of faecal-oral transmission of diseases.
Mudashiru called for pragmatic policies that would compel all levels of government to give priority to the construction of toilets in public places, saying this would go a long way to improve the health of the populace.
Mrs Ngozi Emenike, a civil servant, who bemoaned the lack of toilet facilities in public places across the FCT, underscored the need to criminalise the practice of open defecation in the country.
She conceded that the people could not, however, be totally blamed for the development, saying that if public toilets were constructed in strategic locations across the city, the residents would be encouraged to use them, even if they had to pay some fees.
“What can anyone do if he or she wants to answer the call of nature? You find out that most people just do it at any convenient place; that’s why you find faeces by the roadside and in drainage channels around the city centre.
“This is not acceptable at all; government must make it a priority to construct sanitation facilities and also punish anyone found defecating in the open,” she said.
Besides, Emenike stressed the importance of having water facilities in all nooks and crannies of the FCT, saying that whenever water was made available, life would be better for all residents, particularly the children.
However, Mr Ahmed Yunusa, a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) expert, said that majority of people tended to shy away whenever issues of defecation and public toilets were mentioned.
He said that the insignificant attention given to the issue of public toilets across the country signified the apathy of the policymakers toward such issues and their importance in the society.
He said that the inability to find or use toilets when outside the home had serious implications for people’s bladder, bowel or kidney health, as they were forced to “hold on’’ when there was no place to discharge the waste.
Yunusa stressed that the three tiers of government should make it a priority to provide public toilets for all Nigerians, irrespective of factors such as gender and social class, adding that it was part of their human rights.
The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, at the inauguration of the Partnership for Expanded Water, Sanitation (PEWASH) Programme, also voiced support for the scaling up of WASH activities in the country.
He said that the PEWASH programme reflected the Federal Government’s commitment to closing access gaps and meeting the sixth target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aimed at scaling up access to water and sanitation by 2030.
Adamu said with the implementation of the policies and the PEWASH programme, the uncoordinated efforts by the stakeholders would soon be a thing of the past.
“The PEWASH programme is designed to be a national collaborative instrument between all stakeholders, including government at all levels, development partners and the private sector.
“It is intended to mobilise all stakeholders’ efforts and channel same toward common goals, targets and standards,’’ he added.
According to UNICEF, no fewer than 39 million Nigerians still practise open defecation, while diarrhoea kills 194,000 under-five children annually.
Globally, the UN estimates that no fewer than 2.5 billion people still do not have access to improved toilet facilities, while at least one billion people still practice open defecation. (NAN)
TAK/MOL/OOK
============
Edited by Mustapha Lamidi and Dayo Komolafe