Ondo State Anti-Open Defecation Policy

THAT  Ondo State is among the states notorious for open defecation in the country calls for serious concern and attention.

ACCORDING to United Nations Children’s Endowment Fund, UNICEF, the sanitation rate in the state is well below both the national average (27percent) and that of the South West (30percent), at 21.3percent, portends a great danger to health, child development, education outcome, dignity, among others. Report shows that,  defecation is practised by 47.6percent of households in Ondo State.

IT was also revealed that 1.4m people in the state actively engage in open defecation out of the total of 47m in Nigeria. The impact of this includes contributing to the yearly death of 60,000 children in the country due to cholera. About 122,000 Nigerians with 87,000 under the age of five die yearly from diarrhoea and other sanitation-related diseases, according to UNICEF.

THE  situation is too bad to be ignored. Among old buildings in Akure, the state capital, 80 percent lacked toilet facilities. There are areas in the town that are notorious for this menace: Isinkan, Ayedun, Isolo, Idiagba, NEPA area, Hospital road, to mention but a few.

THE trend is the same all over the state from Akoko to Okitipupa, to Idanre,  everywhere people take refuge in the bush, forests and canal to ease themselves due to lack of modern toilet facilities.

THEY do so because they do not have  a toilet readily available or due to inherent  cultural practises.

THE  ones with pit latrines have holes that are too shallow and they get filled up easily and are unkept. Many shopping malls, markets  do not have befitting public toilets. People defecate inside nylons and throw  it out into  the open.

TO rectify the situation, the government must provide the public with toilets, and public-spirited individuals must move in to bridge this gnawing gap in our public health management.

OPEN defecation apart from being a health hazard is an indication of  extreme  poverty and lack of sanitation which can lead to epidemic and  other water borne diseases like cholera.

THIS raining season is a cholera prone period, as the rains wash off and gets into the water people drink. Therefore, Government must act decisively to ensure that every home complies with the new policy outlawing open defecation the state.

AND it can start with keeping to its words by enforcing the decision to prosecute those who practice open defecation and sanctioning owners of buildings without adequate toilet facilities and have not put them up between now and December, having been given six months moratorium.

FILLING stations along the highways in the state have also been mandated to put in place, “functional and accessible” public conveniences within their facilities for public use, and all public and private schools are to have functional toilets.

THE environmental sanitation officers who will ensure enforcement must be mentally equipped to do their job without fear or favour. And there is a need for a reorientation of the populace to desist from open defecation.

OUT of the 774 LGAs in Nigeria only 11 is free from open defecation, with seven of them  in Cross Rivers State, with the others in Benue, Bauchi and Jigawa State. This was achieved through the implementation  of what is called Community Led Total sanitation (CLT).

WE  can learn from Bangladesh, which in 2003 had about 42percent of the population defecating openly, but has now been declared open defecation free. This feat was achieved not only by making  sanitary latrines are made available but by educating the people about hygiene with folk lores and plays deployed in the low literacy areas to ensure everyone gets the message.

THEREFORE, The Hope believes that the war on open defecation would not be won just by making the necessary infrastructure available, but there should be a concerted appeal through  attitudinal change   of the people, via active value reorientation. This would translate to eradicating open defecation in our clime.

WE support government’s bold’s initiative to end the culture of open defecation because it will help curb health hazards particularly cholera, child mortality and poverty.