The Place Matters – When Nature Calls
In human existence, it is inevitable to attend to “Natures Call” but where to respond to the call matters. Toilet, which is a designated place with fixed receptacle or platform to receive faeces and urine from humans, has become a global issue of concern due to their inadequacy in many households in rural settings and among the Urban Poor.
Many of these is as a result of neglection on the part of house-owners even in the midst of government interventions. This has resulted in making people use various available spaces for open defecation with attendants’ public health problems such as the outbreak of cholera, typhoid, and other diarrhoea disease, especially in developing countries.
Globally, it has been reported that about 892 million people do not have access to toilet and therefore practice open defecation, that is attend to natures call in bushes, beaches, obscured places or secluded areas. About 62.5%people in the world do not have access to safe sanitation, 4.5 billion live without safe toilet, and 1.8 billion people use drinking water sources that could be contaminated with faeces.
It has been reported that one out of three women and girls as (1 out of 3) do not have access to decent toilets and this has serious implications on their health and security. Diarrhoeal diseases accounts for 7.5% of deaths in the African region, which indicate the devastating impact of lack of access to a safely managed toilet (United Nations, 2018; WHO/UNICEF, 2017).
Ghana’s situation is more pathetic because only about 14% of the population have access to basic sanitation with about 86% not having access to basic sanitation (toilet). Again, the country is rated 9th on the list of countries with the worst access to basic sanitation in the world.
In terms of open defecation, about 15% of the households practice Open Defecation with the three Northern Regions being the worst affected. The Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources has also indicated that a total of 13,000 schools in Ghana do not have toilet facilities at all which is a dent on the fight for fundamental human right in the country. The resultant effect is the increase in cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea, and other sanitation-related disease leading to an increase in morbidity and mortality in the country.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals has set an ambitious goal for countries like Ghana to up their games to address this alarming situation and bridge the access gap. Target 6.2 of the Goal 6, which is “By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations” to work assiduously to bridge the access and equity gaps.
People cue to access public toilet
This will require the adoption of pragmatic approaches that fit to the local situations of the rural and urban dwellers. Results-oriented programmes should be adopted by governments, development partners, NGOs and CSOs, community based organisations, research institutions, the private sector, the financial sector, and traditional leaders to address the situation.
Deployment of appropriate polices with some subsides to households, use of technology to speed-up sanitation marketing, attractive and flexible financial products from the financial and insurance companies, promotion of safe and affordable basic toilet technologies, awareness creation and attitudinal change to prevent open defecation and punishment for non-conformers should help resolve the access gap and open defecation practices to a large extent.
Nature will always call, let us plan and have safe and dignifying places in homes to respond right to the call, as we join the world to celebrate the world toilet day. Remember, when Nature calls the place to attend to the call does count.
United Nations (2018): Sustainable Development Goal 6 Synthesis Report 2018 on Water and Sanitation: http://www.unwater.org/un-reports-that-world-is-off-track-on-water-and-sanitation-goal/
WaterAid’s (2017).
Out of Order: The State of the World’s Toilets 2017. Available at https://www.wateraid.org/uk/sites/g/files/jkxoof211/files/Out%20of%20Order%20report%202017_0.pdf
WHO/UNICEF (2017): http://www.who.int/en/news-room/detail/12-07-2017-2-1-billion-people-lack-safe-drinking-water-at-home-more-than-twice-as-many-lack-safe-sanitation
Dr. Richard Amfo-Otu, Mr Stephen Omari and Mr Daniel Foster Akrofi
Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management
Cranfield University, UK