It’s World Toilet Day!

Of the world 7 billion people, 6 billion have mobile phones. However, only 4.5 billion have access to toilets or latrines-meaning the 2.5 billion people, mostly in rural areas, do not have access to toilet and proper sanitation. In addition, 1.1 billion people still defecate in the open.The countries where open defecation is most widely […]

Of the world 7 billion people, 6 billion have mobile phones. However, only 4.5 billion have access to toilets or latrines-meaning the 2.5 billion people, mostly in rural areas, do not have access to toilet and proper sanitation. In addition, 1.1 billion people still defecate in the open.
The countries where open defecation is most widely practiced are same countries with the highest number of under-five child deaths, high levels of under-nutrition and poverty, and large wealth disparity.
World Toilet Day was created to pose exactly those kinds of questions and to raise global awareness of the daily struggle for proper sanitation that a staggering 2.5 billion people face. The day brings together different group, such as media, the private sector, development organization, and civil society in a global movement to advocate for safe toilets.
Since its inception in 2001, World Toilet Day has become an important platform to demand action from government and to reach out to wider audiences by showing that toilet can be fun and attractive as well as vital to life.
Toilet in Nigeria leaves much to be desired.  A simple visit to our houses, offices, markets, Relaxation Park, hotels will tells you the state of our toilets. People are also defecating and urinating indiscriminately along the road, in public places etc. without any shame, which rains washes it away to our water supply source, and the attendant consequences. The state of public toilets also are so poor that if you use some, you must take a good shower to free yourself from the scent and smell that stains both your body and dress. Many houses had no toilet at all, but only use the nearby space or bush, even the dead are not spared, as some do go to cemeteries to defecate and urinate.
According to the National Policy on Excreta and Sewage Management, 2005, it has been observed that, in urban centres, some households with water carriage system, pipe the raw sewage into the public drains. Also, according to 1999 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey [NDHS], 12% of the urban population has no toilet facilities of any kind while, 55% use pit latrines and 31% use flush toilets. Rural areas are even less served.  
The disease associated with excreta are faeco-oral, like cholera, dysentery, poliomyelitis, etc; soil transmitted helminths like roundworm, whipworm, hookworm, etc., beef and pork tapeworm due to the eating of untreated excreta by cow or pig, water-borne helminths like schistosomiasis due to frequent contact with faecal contaminated water and excreta related insect vectors like flies, cockroach and culex mosquito.
More awareness is needed for the people to appreciate the relevance of the day, and inculcate the importance of toilet in their life.

Sani Garba Mohammed, Federal University of Technology, Owerri