The issue of open defecation was once again brought to the fore at last Tuesday’s inauguration of the 2021 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping (WASH-NORM) III Report in Abuja. The report puts the number of people that still practise open defecation in Nigeria at not less than 48million.
Commenting on the report, the Minister of Water Resources, Mr. Suleiman Adamu, said, “The results show clearly that access to basic water supply services is available to 67 per cent of the population, at 92 per cent access levels, the richest households are twice more likely to use basic water supply services than the poorest households with 46 per cent.
“Disparities also exist between urban areas and rural areas, the most common sources of drinking water recorded by households were boreholes/tube wells, and only 11 per cent of the household population use pipe-borne water”, adding that the slow progress being made in improving water and sanitation services was due to population expansion, low commitments from states and impact of COVID-19.
That this huge number of Nigerians still defecate in the open is very disturbing, especially going by the government’s claim at tackling the menace.
Recall that in 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari signed Executive Order 009 to end open defecation in the country by 2025 titled “The Open Defecation-Free Nigeria by 2025 and Other Related Matters Order 2019.”  The order aimed at changing the embarrassing record of the country being the second country with the highest number of people practising open defecation, next to India. Part of the executive order says, “there is a National Secretariat called ‘Clean Nigeria Campaign established in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources Secretariat. The secretariat is authorised on behalf of the President to implement this Order by ensuring that all public places including schools, hotels, filling stations, places of worship, market places, hospitals and offices have accessible toilets and latrines within their premises.”
Three years down the line, has anything changed? How many of these public facilities now have toilets and latrines? At the coming into being of the Order many questions were asked by some Nigerians which are still relevant today – How realistic is it for the nation to eradicate this problem in the next three years as the federal government targets? What plans are there to adequately provide these facilities before 2025? What are the established mechanisms of monitoring the use of existing public toilets and the ones yet to be established?
Again, many people resort to open defecation due to lack of water for flushing. Should we therefore not make water available to the citizens first of all, for our dream of ending open defecation to be a reality? There is also the issue of unstable water tables which makes digging of toilets in some places very difficult and expensive. Was this factored into the plan to rid the nation of open defecation in the next couple of years?
The minister was blaming the inability of the government to provide water on population expansion and others. Shouldn’t this have been factored into the development plan of the country? Year 2025 is just three years away and we are still being given excuses? It’s quite unfortunate. Going by the devastating impact of open defecation on the environment and health of the citizens, shouldn’t more sincere efforts be made by both federal, state and local governments towards reducing its prevalence in the country? Almost every year, the nation battles the outbreak of water-borne diseases like cholera, diarrhea, hepatitis and others. Last year, the outbreak of cholera in some parts of the country caused no less than 816 deaths according to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC). Experts have described cholera as a preventable and treatable epidemic -prone disease which is transmitted by eating or drinking contaminated food or water. One major cause of water contamination in Nigeria is open defecation. The huge human wastes that daily go into the seas, rivers and lagoons going by reports, is quite alarming. Little wonder in October 2019, Nigeria became the number one open defecation nation globally, passing India. In bushes, in schools, fields and classrooms, in uncompleted buildings, at dumps, walkways, under bridges, excreta are a common sight. It is not unusual to see someone hawking food item drop the item at a corner of the road or close to drainage, bend down, and pull down his underwear to answer the call of nature; neither is it strange to see a commuter bus pull out from the highway for the passengers to excrete at a nearby bush.
Let’s not talk about what obtains in some of our higher institutions of learning and public secondary schools where open defecation is almost a norm. Students are compelled to excrete in polythene bags and dispose off   on the streets or  in the bush either due to lack of water supply, poorly managed toilet facilities or outright non availability of toilet facilities.
At the airports, markets, motor parks and other public places, the situation is not too different. Although, most times, there are public toilets in these places, some people still prefer excreting in the open, thereby polluting the entire environment.  A typical example is the “prestigious” Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.  This is arguably one of the best airports in the country. In terms of neatness, especially inside and at the tarmac, it is next to none.
Move towards the car park,  the whole place reeks of urine and decaying faecal matters. This abysmal attitude obviously, is not peculiar to rural or urban dwellers nor can it be attributed solely to poverty or lack of toilet facilities. I have not forgotten an experience at a workshop some years ago, where all the participants made up of top civil servants, media executives, heads of schools, and other top people in the society gave affirmative responses to the moderator’s question of if there were any of the participants who had not defecated openly before. Some even narrated how they enjoy the natural breeze that caresses them while defecating in the open.
It is therefore,  imperative that Nigerians be educated and sensitized regularly on the dangers of open defecation and importance of proper hygiene because apparently, many do not know and some who are aware, prefer the unwholesome attitude.
Without these challenges being addressed, the idea of eradicating open defecation in the country in 2025 might just go the way of other unrealistic national campaigns. State governments should also toe the line of the federal government by prioritizing the issues surrounding water, sanitation and hygiene which will ultimately make the drive for no open defecation smooth and fruitful. Authorities at all levels should play down on politics which has taken center stage in Nigeria right now and pay more attention on tackling the mounting challenges in the country which are affecting the quality of lives of the citizens.
Meanwhile, as the government is expected to intensify efforts in their role towards solving the problem of open defecation in the country, we as the citizens should complement the government’s effort by dropping our primitive lifestyles that make us defecate anyhow, anywhere.   We should be more committed in taking care of the few available toilet facilities in our offices, worship centers, shopping malls and other public places.  It is indeed  time we improved on our personal hygiene and good sanitation habits.

By: Calista Ezeaku