Looking for toilet? Please use the bush

Akatu who hails from Benue State, was on his way to Abuja when the vehicle he was travelling in got trapped in the strenuous Mararaba traffic gridlock ,and in the heat of waiting the need to make use of the toilet arose.He hurriedly disembarked from the vehicle and rushed to one of the houses facing […]

Akatu who hails from Benue State, was on his way to Abuja when the vehicle he was travelling in got trapped in the strenuous Mararaba traffic gridlock ,and in the heat of waiting the need to make use of the toilet arose.
He hurriedly disembarked from the vehicle and rushed to one of the houses facing the expressway, but to his shock, the occupants of the house told him that the house had no toilet and that he should try the next compound. After checking about five houses and he was told the same story, what happened to him is better imagined.
That is the story of Mararaba, a densely populated slum/suburb near Abuja, which is less than 20 minutes’ drive from Aso Rock, the seat of government.
The area is gradually gaining popularity as one of the biggest slums in the country, where people take their destinies in their hands, as more than 80 per cent of the houses built in the area have no provision for toilets. In a release to mark World Toilet Day 2014, WaterAid noted “right here in Nigeria … 103m people still defecate in the open. Current estimates show that only 32% of Nigeria’s population has access to improved sanitation facilities, with 36% coverage in urban areas as compared to 28% in rural areas.”
Mararaba which provides accommodation to a high percentage of civil servants and other public servants working in Abuja, is the second busiest town in Nasarawa State after Lafia, the state capital.
Most states in northern Nigeria are striving to reduce open defecation, but Nasarawa State may have a long way to go as Mararaba, one of its most populated towns, is not considering eradicating open defecation in the nearest possible time.
Mr Ademola Johnson, a civil servant with one of the federal ministries in Abuja, has lived in Mararaba for over 10 years,and has also not made use of a regular toilet within this period.
“When I moved into Mararaba upon my transfer from Lagos, everywhere was bush around the house where I am living. So the landlord said we can use the bush as a toilet, and that was what we did. But now the bush is no long there, forcing us to device other means such as using newspapers or polythene bags which we throw into the flowing stream or come out very early in the morning and defecate into the stream,” Johnson said.
Unlike Johnson, many other residents of Mararaba who do not have toilets, either defecate openly on football pitches, beside market places, on the streets, bus stops and by the highway.
Mrs Agatha Chima, a housewife, said that women living in the area suffer the most, as they face several abuses in the search for where to defecate.
“Women living here encounter a lot of challenges in the course of finding a safe place to defecate. You come out very early to defecate and you meet men of all sorts harassing you, and if you attempt to go out to defecate in the night, that is even worst as most of the places are used by hooligans as spots to smoke hemp,” Mrs Chima said.

The visit by Daily Trust to the area showed that the few houses that have toilets have them connected directly to the stream at various points. Meanwhile, residents use water from the stream for various other  purposes, including drinking, washing and household chores.
It is a common sight on Saturdays to see families or young girls coming to the stream to wash their clothes, or to fetch water for their households, while little boys who come to the stream take advantage of the flowing water to swim and play games.
The stream is also used by butchers at the only available abattoir in the area to ‘wash’ their kill. At the abattoir, cows and goats are slaughtered on the bare floor, while the blood and the content of the bowels are swept into the stream.
The Karu Local Government Health Department does not have statistics on the availability of toilets in Mararaba, the largest town in the area, but it noted that efforts were on going to task landlords in the area to ensure that each house has a toilet.
The lack of toilet facilities in the area has provided opportunity for some youths to erect makeshift toilets for use by the public at a fee. Depending on the need of the individual, the youths charge between N10 to N30 per use.But most residents say they are afraid of using the public facility for health reasons.
Miss Kate Igo, a resident, said that apart from the fact that those public toilets are located at the busiest spots in the area, the issue of hygiene is essential, as public toilets remain one of the major places where people, especially women can contact infections.
“Some of us still prefer to use the bush in spite of the public toilets that are here. Our health is very important and it is very easy to contact infections from public toilets,” she added.

The area also boasts of a federal medical centre, but the impact of the centre is not felt, due to the numerous traditional medicine practitioners in the area.
Dr Theophilus Adole Ochonu, a medical practitioner with the Federal Medical Centre, Keffi who resides in the area, said that cases of diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera and skin diseases are common cases handled in the area, stressing that there was a direct relationship between the absence of toilet facilities and the prevalence of the diseases.
“In August last year, all hospitals in the area were flooded with cases of cholera and you know that is the peak period of rain fall. Because people defecate openly, the rain moved it into water bodies and people made use of  the water. The need for authorities to enforce or compel every household to have a toilet cannot be overemphasised,” Ochonu said.
Traditional medicine practitioners in the area are having a field day selling concoctions to unsuspecting residents, as antidote to diseases that are related to open defecation.
“Most of us have been able to come this far and have never been hospitalised for any illness in this area, because of the ‘agbo’ we take every now and then. It is cheap and affordable, with just N50 you have a cup full and that takes you through the day,” said Amadi, a bus driver living in the area.
The situation in Mararaba and many other cities, towns and villages across Nigeria according to observers, is drawing the country back in its efforts to achieve an open defecation free nation.