‘How being open defecation free zone helped us’

About 46 million people practice open defecation in the country. The practice has continued to have negative effect on the populace, especially children, in the area of health and education.

Open defecation refers to the practice whereby people go out in the fields, bushes, forests, open bodies of water, or other open spaces rather than using the toilet to defecate.

This practice remains a huge obstacle for people living in poverty, mostly rural and semi-urban areas, and is responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths. But despite many efforts to eradicate the habit, it has proved difficult thereby prompting the Federal Government to set 2025 target to eradicate the practice.

Lack of access to toilets has been a major challenge in the country, both in the urban, semi-urban and rural areas, thereby making many Nigerians resort to open defecation or use of pit toilets, which poses huge health, environmental and social risks.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in a Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) figures revealed that Nigeria now has 71 per cent of her populace without access to safe, private toilets (that is over 130 million people) and 25 per cent practicing open defecation.

UNICEF in a release said two out of five people use safely managed sanitation services and that universal access to adequate sanitation was a fundamental need and human right.

Although it has been a hard battle to conquer the practice, recent reports in Nigeria suggest that open defecation rates have been decreasing steadily across the country with the European Union (EU) and UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme across some states in Nigeria.

Ikot Nkpene community in Nsit Atai Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State is a beneficiary of the WASH programme and one of the Open Defecation Free (ODF) certified communities in the state.

Utritoro Nfem, a primary six pupil of Government School, Ikot Nkpene, whose school benefited from WASH newly built toilets expressed her joy saying that it is clean and safe.

“We used to go into the bush to defecate when there was no toilet. The school had pit toilets but it was not good, always smelling, so we preferred going to the bushes behind the school whenever we want to ease ourselves.”

The provision of the toilets and water are a big relief to the children as they can now go into the neatly provided toilet facility by UNICEF/EU in the school and also make use of water both for flushing and washing their hands.

Another pupil, Ifreke Umoh, said she likes the toilets because of their neatness.

“We are all happy to have these toilets. We go inside and come out without fear. This has also encouraged our parents to also provide improved latrines for us at home instead of defecating behind the house as we used to do, but many of us prefer to come to school and use the toilets here.”

The community head of Ikot Nkpene, Chief Samuel Akpan Udofa, while speaking to journalists through his deputy, Chief Uwemedimo Davies, said the community used to suffer a lot of communicable diseases in the past, especially the children before rescue came for them through EU/UNICEF.

“We all know that children are vulnerable to different kinds of diseases. There used to be outbreak of cholera and dysentery as a result of open defecation and lack of water but we have not witnessed such since rescue came for us,” he said.

At a two-day media workshop on WASH organized by the Child’s Right Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Ministry of Information and UNICEF in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, WASH specialist, Martha Honkoya, said engaging in open defecation and living in unhygienic environment were responsible for most of the water and environment-related diseases, especially among children causing the death of under-five.

She however added that the behaviour of the people towards open defecation have started changing.

She said if the people stopped open defecation, it would help to prevent the outbreak of most communicable diseases thereby ensuring a safe environment to live in.

Honkoya said that the UNICEF/EU WASH programme was brought to the South-South to assist the people.

“We have to assist by building toilet facilities for them and also water supply. Now the people also put their resources together to construct their own improved latrines which are safe concept latrines. We can boldly say that the responses are coming up, practices are changing and also behaviours are changing towards sanitation and hygiene,” she said.

She said to be able to monitor water and hygiene related issues, UNICEF came in to establish what is called the Rural Water and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA) so that it will sustain the agencies within the ministry that was responsible.

Another WASH specialist, Moustapha Niang, added that for Nigeria to achieve the 2030 goal of being open defecation free, a lot of work needed to be done.

“We must invest in it and also put policies in place to encourage behavioural change in sanitation and hygiene. We have the resources here to do better with RUWASA and with local government agencies, WASH department with international NGOs and civil society,” he added.