Environmental experts and other stakeholders in Oyo state have deplored the practice of open defecation in the state, warning that it portends hazards to residents if not stopped.
The experts and stakeholders told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews that the law against open defecation should be strictly enforced and violators prosecuted and punished to put an end to the practice.
NAN reports that Wikipedia defines open defecation as a human practice of excreting outside rather than into a toilet. People may choose fields, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals, or other open spaces for defecation.
They do so either because they do not have a toilet readily accessible or due to traditional cultural practices.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the significance of sanitation to safeguard human health is irrefutable and has important public health dimensions. Access to sanitation has been essential for human dignity, health and well-being.
The WHO reports further that despite 15 years of conjunctive efforts under the global action plans Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), 2.3 billion people have no access to improved sanitation facilities (flush latrine or pit latrine) and nearly 892 million of the total world’s population are still practice open defecation.
NAN reports that WHO/ UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for water supply and sanitation has rated Oyo state as the third highest prevalence rate of open defecation in Nigeria after Plateau and Ekiti states.
According to the UN data of people who value toilets, 3.6 billion people value toilets because they do not have one that works properly. That is why the United Nations declares a day annually to observe World Toilet Day, to celebrate the day and raise awareness of the 3.6 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitisation
Dr Akinfemi Akinyode, an epidemiologist in Oyo state said open defecation was hazardous to environmental and public health. According to him, open defecation is a militating factor in the fight against communicable diseases.
He said that diseases like diarrhea, intestinal infections, respiratory diseases and tuberculosis have been linked with open defecation and poor hygiene.
A local government worker in Ibadan South-West Local Government Council, who pleaded anonymity, said that the practice of open defecation was common practice in the Ibadan metropolis.
He said that people preferred to defecate in the canals, bushes and gutters.
“Some people use light polythene bags and potty pots for toileting. They defecate inside it and discard the faeces into either nearby bushes, drainages or public dump sites.
“This is an eyesore. If you visit places like Oke Bola, Ogunpa, and some shops in Agbeni markets, people defecate inside polythene bags within their shops and dispose them in refuse bins within the market,” the official said.
A resident of Mokola area of Ibadan, Mr Kehinde Adesokan, said that the practice of open defecation remained a widespread phenomenon within Ibadan metropolis due to lack of toilet facilities and pipe borne water.
“There is also a lack or shortage of public toilets in public places like markets, car parks, garages and schools,” he said.
According to some respondents at Mapo and Ojaba environments, not having access to any form of toilet has become a nagging problem to them daily.
For instance, many workers at Ibadan South-East Local Government Council, headquartered at Mapo, who were interviewed, complained bitterly of lack of toilet facilities within the office premises.
In fact, a female clerk at the customary court within the Mapo complex, who spoke to NAN under the condition of anonymity, said that officials usually engaged in a practice she described as “short-put”- whereby they excrete into polythene bags or on paper spread on the floor and which is later thrown away.
Another staff of the council, equally who did not want his name published, said that he and many other workers have devised the method of use of over-the-counter drugs to prevent them from going to the toilet at work.
Some other people interviewed by NAN said that they dig the ground to cover-up their faeces.
Shedding more light on the matter, a commercial driver at Oja’ba, Mr Tajudeen Oyelere, said that he and his coleagues often spend no fewer than five minutes before getting to the nearest public pit toilet available.
Oyelere added that they sometimes meet a queue of people waiting to use the pit toilet due to the crowd of people visiting the place.
A teenager, who simply identified himself as Alaba, said that since his birth at Oja’ba area, he has been using the `short-put system’ of defecation due to non-availability of toilets in his residence.
At the Pepper market Moniya, Akinyele Local Government Area, Ibadan, investigation by NAN revealed that though the market has a toilet facility; it was dirty and in an unhygienic state.
It was also discovered that the toilet facility was inadequate for the number of people that daily visit the market to buy and sell as well as transporters from the northern region who bring goods.
In an interview with NAN, the Chairman, Ibadan North-West Local Government, Hon. Rahman Adepoju, said that open defecation was archaic, and no developed or developing nation should accommodate or condone it.
He said the council, in the bid to curb the practice, began sanitation exercises every other Thursday, in every ward in the local government area.
Adepoju said the council also repaired some toilets which were in a state of disrepair and constructed additional ones in the areas where there were none.
He added that the local government had also begun the construction of some boreholes in the Onireke area, to ensure that the people did not lack water to use.
“There is a serious need for public enlightenment regarding this, so we will move around the areas to sensitise people on the dangers of the menace -open defecation.
“This is because many of the residents don’t know anything about the dangers of open defecation even to their own health and environment.
“The heart desire of the state government is that the citizens are well taken care of, so we must all join hands to work together and make sure that this goal is achieved,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Adetunji Akinpelu, a Director in the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, said that the Oyo State Government was committed to ending open defecation.
According to Akinpelu, the present administration in the state since its inception had taken proactive steps to curb open defecation in the state.
He said that the government had intensified its sensitisation programme to create awareness for the general public on the need to stop open defecation.
He added that the government, in partnership with private organisations had embarked on erection of public and mobile toilets in strategic locations across major towns in the state.
The director said that his ministry would soon commence checks on residential buildings, especially in Ibadan less cities, to identify erring landlords.
He maintained that there was an existing law that prohibited open defecation across the state.
According to him, the law makes it an offence for anyone caught violating the law and such erring person is liable to a fine of N5,000.
He said that the law also makes it mandatory for owners of habitable and business structures to provide toilet facilities in such structures.
He said that property owners, who fail to make toilet provisions for his/her structures, are liable to three months’ imprisonment or N50,000 fine. (NAN)
