Abdul Hassan
25 April 2008
As health experts explore how to make the Nigerian society healthy, one worrisome impediment is the common act of open defecation.
The practice, hitherto restricted to the rural areas, is now a common sight in the urban centres.
In Abuja, the nation's capital for instance, it is not unusual to see adults stooping by the roadside and passing excreta, oblivious of motorists and passersby.
At such moments, most of the passersby are forced to cover their nostrils to avoid the stench oozing from the human waste deposited on the roads.
The situation was worse when commercial motorcyclists were allowed into the city as they would park their cycles and stoop to answer nature's call nearby.
For many rural dwellers, the practice is considered an inherited culture.
According to Malam Akilu Alti, a rural farmer in Jigawa, excreting in the open has remained the practice because latrines are seen as an "abomination".
"Our people believe that it causes poverty, frustration and all kinds of calamity to the family," he claims.
In some rural settlements in the FCT, however, men are allowed to use latrines while women are forbidden.
In such communities, the women go into the bush to defecate along with the children.
Generally, the consequences of this act are obvious.
According to Mr Baidu Samaila, a public health expert in Kaduna, the stool in the open space is later washed by rains into rivers, streams and ponds which are the only sources of water in the rural areas.
"Such water, when consumed, leads to all kinds of ailments such as cholera, diarrhoea gastro-enteritis and other water-borne infections," he says. Samaila says the situation is particularly bad because the people do not boil their water before consumption.
Records from the WHO and UNICEF indeed attest to the complete lack of pure water sources for many Nigerians.
According to the UN agencies' country assessment report for 2005/2006, no fewer than 70 per cent of Nigerians live in the rural communities with "less than 20 per cent" of them having access to potable water.
The report also shows that less than 10 per cent have any access to sanitation facilities. Concerned about the dangers of such sanitation problems to the society, global
NGOs such WaterAid, as well as UNICEF, are undertaking programmes to improve the situation.
Working under the aegis of "Total Sanitation", the groups have embarked on a massive campaign against open defecation by gingering communities to construct pit latrines at home.
Their campaigns also entail enlightening the rural dwellers on the dangers of not washing their hands after defecation.
To demonstrate its commitment to improve sanitation, the European Union (EU) and
WaterAid, in September last year, provided a grant of 2.9 million Euros to support the provision of clean water and sanitation facilities in 12 small towns in Jigawa and Benue states.
To asses the impact of the gesture, an NGO, Media Network for Water and Sanitation, visited some of the benefiting communities last month and reported a "massive" improvement.
"Even in Jigawa where reports had initially indicated a cultural rejection of pit latrines, we found that they had very much embraced the new move," the NGO says.
It states that rural communities such as Mele, near Gumel, are now averse to open defecation, having been enlightened on its dangers.
The situation is the same in the Ubegba community in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue, a settlement of less than 500 people living in 25 houses.
Until recently, their children defecated in the backyard and their adults in the bush.
According to the Village Head, Mr Simon Atah, the villagers had lived in the area without latrines for more than 100 years.
"Nobody knew anything called latrine until recently; we defecated in the bush and the streams in line with the culture and traditions of our fathers."
Mrs Elizabeth Ikpebe, a prominent woman in the village, corroborates the claims of the traditional ruler.
"We used to defecate in the bush and streams inspite of the consequent stench and the flies," she says.
With the support of the grant, the community started a micro-credit scheme that enabled all the families to construct latrines in their houses and a hand washing facility.
To sustain the effort, Atah says that the community has constituted a sanitation and hygiene committee.
The committee meets every fortnight to assess the success of the initiative and renew the resolve to sustain and even improve on the community's sanitation.
But for members of the Media Network who visited the area, the most fascinating aspect is the resolve by youths in the village to support old men and women who cannot procure materials needed for latrine construction.
The youths dig pit latrines for such elders.
They have also set up a sanitation centre where essential sanitation materials are procured for the construction of latrines.
"The pit latrine has helped us a lot. Now we no longer have to hide in the bush to answer the call of nature," Ikpebe says.
The report from the Mele community in Gumel is interesting as the Hausa community had all along seen the pit latrine as a taboo.
According to 95-year-old Bunu Maigari, believed to be the oldest man in the village, their forefathers had warned succeeding generations against using latrines.
"They believed that constructing a latrine causes poverty and calamities and that is why we grew up without toilets in the houses," he explains.
With the intervention of the grant, the story has changed. According to Salmanu Ragije, a teacher, the community now contributes N50 monthly to purchase materials for the construction of a pit latrine in each house.
"We plan to contribute more and keep whatever is left to acquire hand pumps. "WaterAid trained our people on how to construct pit latrines, using local and cheaper materials; now the diseases that killed our people almost on a daily basis some years ago have disappeared."
According to him, it costs N2,500 to construct a slab latrine, while a traditional facility costs
N1,500.
A recent survey indicates that Mele community has attained 100 per cent sanitation coverage and is already planning to extend the campaign to other communities.
The survey, carried out by WaterAid, shows that there is a high level of community participation in the campaign.
According to the report, the community has taken over the ownership of the process and even enforced sanctions for non-compliance.
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