Clean and safe toilets for healthy living

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said recently that 119 million Nigerians still use unsafe toilet facilities at home and in public places; about 50 million of them defecate in open spaces.  Many disease-causing vectors found in the faeces of infected people find their way into the bodies of others through contaminated soil and water. […]

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said recently that 119 million Nigerians still use unsafe toilet facilities at home and in public places; about 50 million of them defecate in open spaces.  Many disease-causing vectors found in the faeces of infected people find their way into the bodies of others through contaminated soil and water. Mosquitoes that breed in stagnant water, algae and fungi in neglected surroundings, lack of safe running water and clean toilets and sewerage are potential sources of epidemics waiting to happen, if not properly controlled.
The World Toilet Day, formally recognised last year as an official UN occasion, is aimed at raising global awareness about people that don’t have access to toilet facilities and the danger this poses in spread of diseases.
This year’s theme of ‘Dignity and Equality’ is to inspire action to end open defecation.
Worldwide, there are some 2.5 billi0n people who do not have adequate toilets; among them are one billion that defecate in the open.
UNICEF ranks Nigeria to be among the top five countries with high population that practice open defecation, a trend that it says has been on the rise since 1990, suggesting that the slow pace of sanitary culture coupled with one of open defecation accounts for the prevalence of communicable diseases, putting more children at risk early death or arrested development.
There is no gainsaying the fact that lack of safe and clean toilets and the practice of open defecation have serious impact on people’s health, wellbeing and make efforts towards poverty reduction, economic and social development more difficult.  Deaths that occur yearly from cholera cases, caused primarily by poor sanitation and unhygienic practice in the country, are an indication of this.
A recent epidemiology report by the Federal Ministry of Health noted that 34, 825 cases of cholera were recorded this year in Nigeria, in contrast to the 2,882 cases over the same period in 2013.
 Estimates are that every year 150,000 Nigerian children die from diarrhoea alone, largely caused by unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene-related practices.
All these underscore the need to end the culture of open defecation in many communities.
In schools, including institutions of higher learning, students prefer to defecate in the open due to lack of water and the unsanitary condition of the toilets
With the complicity of planning authorities, some property owners build houses without toilets, leaving the occupants with no option but to look elsewhere to relieve themselves.  Some also defecate in bags and dump these on the highways or dustbins.
Refuse dumps and roadsides have become places for open defecation.
For a growing population like Nigeria’s, the need for more public toilets is self-evident. Providing these should not necessarily be the duty of government; individuals may operate commercial facilities such as the ones that feature at some motor parks.  
Housing plans must be inspected to check for toilet provision; approval should be denied until this is done.
At the height of the Ebola incident in Nigeria, the Lagos State government threatened to invoke relevant section of the Public Health Law to prosecute residents who indulged in habits capable of spreading the disease in the state. Habits such as open defecation and urination, which were seen as aiding the spread of the deadly virus, were discouraged.  
The ultimate long term goal is to sensitize the general public, in urban and rural communities, about existing regulations that are designed to enhance the quality of life by maintaining a clean environment. Good and clean toilet facilities are a good way to start.