Open defecation according to experts in the health sector is the practice of defecating outside rather than into a toilet by the people. People do so either because they do not have toilet facilities readily accessible or due to archaic cultural practice over the years not minding its enormous hazards to human health and the society at large.
Defecating in open place is an affront to human dignity, children’s nutrition and risk to community health. In some places, even people with functional toilets in their houses prefer to defecate in the open to enjoy their cigarettes or marijuana as well as the fresh air.
The risk of open defecation in a developing world like Nigeria is so enormous including diarrhea, worm infections which weakens the children and make them more susceptible to malnutrition and other opportunistic diseases.
Open defecation, lack of sanitation and hygiene in general are important factors that causes various degrees of diseases. like typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, polio and trachoma, among others.
A warning has been issued by health experts that Nigeria might miss the target of 2025 and 2030 because according to them, only one hundred and two out of seven hundred and seventy-four local government areas in Nigeria, representing thirteen per-cent are certified open defecation free in the country while twenty-four states including Federal Capita Territory had no validated local government area.
As a result of open defecation, Nigeria loses about one point-three per cent of its Gross Domestic Product, GDP, annually amounting to four hundred and fifty-five billion naira while under health impact, more than one hundred thousand children under five years of age die each year due to diarrhea of which ninety per-cent is directly attributed to unsafe water and sanitation.
In Anambra State, defecating in open places in the urban cities of Onitsha, Awka, Nnewi, Ekwulobia, Otuocho and Ihiala has become a thing of the past following the stringent laws put in place by Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s administration in the State.
Since government cannot do it alone, there is need to strengthen and scale up proven strategies to attain the country’s goals come 2030. School heads, religious and market leaders in the country, those in the banking sectors and the University Communities should join forces with government in making Nigeria open defecation free by 2030.
They should work towards building toilet facilities in their respective institutions, especially at the market places where people defecate on any available space. Landlords on their own should aid the government in this fight by ensuring that they provide functional toilet facilities for their tenants to avoid indiscriminate defecation by the people due to lack of toilets or channeling the soak way to water drainages adding to the already existing poor water, sanitation and hygiene challenges of the country.
ANTHONY OBIORA
