Today is World Toilet Day, a day set aside by the World Toilet Organization.
World Toilet Day is a global observance in response to the struggle of millions of people who daily are faced with the problem of access to proper, clean sanitation and to bring to the forefront the health, emotional and psychological consequences the poor endures as a result of inadequate sanitation.
Of the world’s 7 billion people, six billion have mobile phones: however, 4.5 billion people, mostly in rural areas, do not have access to toilet and proper sanitation. Indeed 1.1 billion people still deface in the open.
The countries where open defecation is most widely practiced have a level of number of under – five child deaths, high level of malnutrition and poverty; and large wealth disparity.
World Toilet Day therefore seeks to raise global awareness to the daily struggle for proper sanitation that a staggering 2.5 billion face.
Since its inception in 2001, it 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.
The United Nation General Assembly on July 24, officially approved, endorsed and designated every 1st November as the day to spotlight the plight of 2.5 billion people who do not have basic toilet.
The assembly resolution approved by consensus, urged all its members to promote behavioral changes and adopt policies to sanitation and end open defecation, a key cause of diarrhea.
The state of toilet in Nigeria leaves much to be desired. In the national policy on excreta and sewage management, 2005, it was observed that in some urban centers, some household with water sewage system, pipe the raw sewage into the public drains.
Also according to 1999 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), 12% of the urban population have no toilet facilities of any kind whilst 55% use pit latrines and 31% use flush toilet. Rural areas are even less served.
These figures are especially sobering as a large number of people still urinate in open spaces, with serious health complications in densely populated urban and partly urban settlements.
Since human faeces contain a wide range of disease causing organisms, including viruses, bacteria and egg of human parasite and that many of these organisms are transmissible to people through horseflies, contaminated hands, food, water, eating and cooking utensils and by direct contact with contaminated objects, the importance of toilet can therefore not be over – emphasized.
It can be seen that cholera and polio mellitus are most common infections that keeps recovering in Nigeria, which their principal severe means of transmission directly is linked to excreta related.
The provision of proper toilets could save the lives of more than 200,000 children in the world, according to the UN. The countries where open defecation is most widely practiced are the same countries with the highest numbers of under-five child deaths, high levels of under-nutrition and poverty, and large wealth disparities. Moreover, over one billion people defecate in the open due to lack of proper toilet facilities.
Kogi State Government is spending so much to fight the cholera epidemic; a better strategy however should be to invest in the environment, making sure that each house has a hygienic and proper toilet, clean and healthy environment.
More awareness is indeed for Nigerians to appreciate the relevance of the day and to inculcate the importance of toilet in their lives.
While it is regrettable that Landlords still build their houses without provision for toilets. Only a stiffer penalty will check the growing cases of people in the capital living in houses without toilets.
Knowing the importance of toilets and on the need to conform to civilized norms, Kogi State Government has begun the building of public toilets in some parts of Kabawa in Lokoja for some residents as a pilot scheme.
While the efforts of the State Government must be commendable, the onus to have a decent and clean environment behooves on the individual landlords to build toilets in their homes.
Health they say is wealth. Despite government’s huge investment in the health sector, such investment becomes noticeable only when individuals play their expected role.
One only hopes that as the world celebrates this year’s World Toilet Day, more awareness would be created in ensuring that only houses with toilets gets building approval with appropriate sanction made against those who build without such basic facilities in their houses.
