FG, govs, stop open defecation

PUNCH

AS the rest of the world makes progress in its fight against open defecation, Nigeria is still miles away. Trailing India as the second worst country struggling with the menace, it does not seem like there is any end in sight. In Nigeria, the menace stinks to the high heavens, a perpetual stain on the environment in rural communities, towns, and cities. The three tiers of government should focus on the eradication of this blight with the right strategies and investment.

These days, the worst hit seems to be the highways. During the week, residents, motorists, and pedestrians on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway lamented the constant defacement of the newly reconstructed drainage system with human faecal waste. The trend has become uncontrollable, as miscreants deface the road median with faeces, thereby causing pedestrians who are crossing the expressway to cover their noses.

Worse is the absence of government control: in broad daylight, these deviants engage in this anti-social conduct without retribution. A drive on the expressway has become torturous as these persons shun shame and do their business on the road, disregarding onlookers. It portrays Nigeria in a very bad light in the eyes of the world. This must not continue.

This newspaper has regularly raised the alarm that the sanitary situation on the expressway has worsened, with residents, traders, and commercial motorcyclists around Kara, Warewa and Mowe in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State turning the area into an open public toilet.

Public health experts say that OD comes with a lot of health crises, including cholera, diarrhea, typhoid, and other water-borne diseases. It traumatises the children and exposes women to snake bites and rape.

OD, experts have noted, can pollute the environment and cause health problems and diseases. High levels of OD are linked to high child mortality, poor nutrition, poverty, and large disparities between rich and poor.

It is shocking that the Federal Government while reconstructing the stretch of the expressway did not consider citing toilets at strategic places along the road. So, commuters are forced to alight from their vehicles and evacuate their bowels right on the road. The government needs to place this simple, yet important environmental infrastructure in place on all its highways nationwide.

Even though the entire world, according to a 2023 WASH report, is “significantly behind the track in reaching universal access to adequate sanitation, with billions of people lacking access to proper toilets and sewage systems,” Nigeria can wash away its shame and step out from being in the top two.

On the UN list, it is target 6.2 of Sustainable Development Goal 6 with the aim of ending OD globally by 2030. The UN acknowledges that the 2030 target might not be met. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, about a quarter of a billion (220 million) people are involved in OD, per the American Library of Medicine.

Nigeria set an ambitious target of 2025 – next year – to eradicate OD but this seems unrealistic as the menace festers. In the past, the poor and people living in rural areas used to be most affected by the menace. Now, urban areas are worse off. Several bridges in Lagos, Ogun, Onitsha, and even the Federal Capital Territory are an eyesore…