Nigeria’s odorous reputation for widespread open defecation seems to have come to stay. This sordid act is perpetrated with impunity along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, from Kara to the New Garage bus stop end. The Highway medians and roadsides are splattered with foul-smelling, congealed human waste, which leaves pedestrians and road users at the mercy of intolerable stench and environmental pollution. Janet Ogundepo writes
Amid the misty dawn of that Wednesday morning, a driving instructor, Samuel Bewaji, left home for his workplace at the Isheri area of the Lagos/Ogun State border.
Full of hopes and expectations for the day, he made to cross the three-lane carriageway at the New Garage Bus stop, at the Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
As soon as he got to the road median demarcating the carriageway, his sight was assailed by splotches and litters of faecal waste and he was forced to cover his nose due to the poignant stench that hung thickly in the air.
All that Bewaji, who now had a scowl on his face, could do was shake his head, release some spittle and hurry away.
The ugly sight increased the pace he began with before crossing the expressway.
After crossing the remaining part of the three-carriage way to the New Garage end, close to his office, he seemed to regain his composure.
Speaking with our correspondent, he said having to pass through the polluted median, coupled with safety concerns of crossing the busy road was a challenge he faced daily.
“While crossing, if you don’t watch your steps, you’ll step into the faeces. The stench of the place is terrible. Most of the people hanging around this area are homeless and they come to the middle road late at night to mess up everywhere,” he lamented.
Still pissed at the sigh he had beheld and shaking his head intermittently as he spoke to our correspondent, Bewaji blurted, “In fact, I couldn’t swallow what I was eating again. At Kara, the situation is worse such that open defecation is practised in broad daylight as against here, where it is done mostly at night.”
The driving instructor called on the Ogun State government to clear the excreta and construct a pedestrian bridge to ensure the safe crossing of pedestrians.
A thriving open-defecation colony
A few metres away from where Bewaji encountered the messy median, a middle-aged man stopped abruptly, zipped down and openly urinated.
Blatantly ignoring the angry stare from pedestrians trying to cross the road and also turning his back on motorists caught in the gridlock which had become synonymous with axis, a dispatch rider, identified as Friday, parked his motorbike and openly urinated by the roadside.
Seeming relieved and glad to have done the act before continuing his Lagos-bound trip, Friday claimed that he had to carry out the act there because “there was nowhere else to pee.”
When asked why he did not request to use the toilet inside a petrol station which was close to where he carried out the act and had earlier refilled his fuel tank, he claimed to always avoid “public toilets for fear of contracting infection.
According to him, whenever he goes on his all-day trip around Lagos making deliveries, he answers the call of nature in the bushes around.
Like a thief in the night
Based on observation and interaction with many people, including traders, who live in the area, open defecation is mainly perpetrated in the night or before dawn. It has also been said that people who do it are mostly homeless persons, traders, pedestrians and others. It is said to be worse in arears with no public toilet.
Though our correspondent got to the area before 6am, no one was seen defecating in the median, however, the sight and smell of fresh faeces hung thickly in the air, confirming that the act was done in the dead of the night.
However, as this correspondent went from the Berger axis of the median to the New Garage, Kara and OPIC axis, pockets of faeces littered the stretch amid dirt and pools of stagnant water.
Interestingly, around that time, some homeless persons residing on and under the pedestrian bridge at Berger bus stop and under the bridge at Magboro could be seen discreetly having their baths while evading the light beams from the motorist’s headlights
A revenue collector at New Garage, Ganiyu Shonubi, said that those who conduct ‘legitimate’ activities around the area are complicit in defacing and polluting the environment with faeces.
Although claimed to only work for a few days at the park, he and other colleagues make use of the public toilet at the back of a nearby pharmacy.
True to his words, a pharmacy was located close to the roundabout where most of them were seated, but a sign indicating the presence of a public toilet was missing.
Still bent on ensuring that those who conduct their businesses at the garage are not implicated in open defecation, Shonubi alleged that passersby were those responsible for the faeces dotting the median.
A few meters away from where Shonubi was seated stood an uncompleted public toilet with a yellow roof.
A tour of the facility showed that it had been abandoned and not in use. However, the back was filled with dirt and stagnant water; evidence that early morning baths were being taken there.
“They mess that place up and this continues because we don’t have enforcement officers to arrest them. These people would come very early in the morning and late at night to defecate around here,” were the responses of Ajeet Yerima, a security guard at Sparklight Estate, when asked about the faeces that littered the median, which was a few meters away from his duty post.
“As an African man, I have learnt to endure the smell and all,” he said with a shrug.
He insisted that only enforcement by government agencies can dissuade those who perpetrate the sordid act.
He explained that louts and homeless persons are responsible for open defecation in the axis, adding that they carry out the act under the cover of darkness.
He, however, said the distance of public toilets at Kara to the road and their filthy state deter passersby from using the facilities.
The purpose of a median
According to a civil engineering website, Allaboutcivil.org, a median, which could be made of concrete or asphalt, depending on the design and function of the road, was important in ensuring traffic safety by providing a physical barrier between opposing traffic and reducing the risk of head-on-collisions.
In simple terms, road medians are barriers between opposing movement of vehicles to prevent accidents.
But the function of the road median seems to have been defeated along this stretch as the facility now serves as an open defecation hub.
Fighting the malady
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, in 2015, 892 million people worldwide still practised open defecation, while only 2.9 billion used a safely managed sanitation service.
UNICEF’s 2021 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene report, stated that 48 million Nigerians, that is 23 per cent of the population, practice open defecation.
The report further indicated that despite efforts of the government and partners at ending open defecation, the rapidly growing population is dwarfing the gains made so far.
Based on the report, access to WASH services in institutions and public places, especially in schools, health facilities, markets and motor parks was 11, 6 and 4 per cent, respectively.
It further revealed that the North Central accounted for 47 per cent of open defecation in the country, while the South West – 24 per cent; South-South, 23 per cent; South East, 22 per cent; North East, 17 per cent and Northwest 11 per cent.
“This suggests a huge neglect of WASH programming in Nigerian institutions, thereby impacting educational attainment, health costs, livelihoods, and ultimately, the country’s economic development,” the report stated in part.
It went on to note that people in rural areas, which make up 31 per cent, were four times more likely to practice open defecation than those living in urban areas.
“Despite the increase in the number of people with access to basic sanitation services, the proportion of people practising open defecation has barely changed since 2019, with the number increasing from 46 million in 2019 to 48 million in 2021,” it added.
Interestingly, open defecation by the Gender of Head of Household, showed that women, 24 per cent, practised more open defecation than men, who stood at 23 per cent.
But while Ebonyi State recorded the highest – 73 per cent, Zamfara recorded the lowest, 1 per cent; Lagos, 3 per cent; Ogun, 14 per cent and the Federal Capital Territory, 30 per cent.
These data further presented Nigeria as the number one country in Africa, and the top two globally, with the largest number of people still practicing open defecation.
According to the World Health Organisation/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme on Water Supply, OD is the practice of relieving oneself in fields, bushes, bodies of water and other spaces. Target 6.2 of the UN-SDGs mandates countries to end open defecation and provide access to sufficient and even-handed sanitation and hygiene, especially to women and girls prone to socioeconomic and cultural risks.
The WHO/UNICEF JMP identifies Nigeria as one of the countries with the highest prevalence of OD practices in the world, where 25 per cent to 50 per cent of its citizens engage in it. Its economic links are revealed in World Bank data showing a higher prevalence in low-income, least developed, highly indebted, fragile, or war-torn countries.
UNICEF’s intervention
In February this year, the UNICEF Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Nigeria, Jane Bevan, called for the introduction of subsidies to encourage vulnerable persons to build and use their toilets.
She stated that this move was towards meeting the National Open Defecation Free Roadmap in the country by 2025, as well as ending the consequent outbreaks of cholera and other contaminable diseases.
Bevan said, “Children suffer mostly during an outbreak of disease. This is the reason we must stop open defecation.
“We are thinking about introducing subsidies to encourage vulnerable people to build their toilets, we are working to do this through the introduction of loans in Bauchi and Oyo states.”
Ogun cholera outbreaks triggered by open defecation
Last month, Punch Healthwise reported the increasing cholera outbreaks sweeping through communities in Ogun State. The latest reported death toll was 12 with over 200 confirmed cases.
Findings revealed that open defecation and indiscriminate waste disposal in water bodies were plausible causes for the outbreak.
The state government had on September 17, 2023, alerted residents to the outbreak of Cholera in the Ijebu North Local Government Area, disclosing that three deaths had been recorded.
The disease later spread to Abeokuta North and Abeokuta South LGs in the state capital.
Findings made by the PUNCH revealed that cholera outbreaks had been a yearly occurrence since 2020 in the state, before the current outbreak due to the absence of toilet facilities in most homes, especially in the capital, Abeokuta.
According to UNICEF, the negative impact of open defecation on health is far-reaching as it contaminates the environment.
It further noted that this has a ripple effect on the development of the child, especially child mortality, morbidity, under-nutrition, stunting, and poor cognitive development.
UNICEF noted that Nigeria needs to build 20 million household toilets, and 43,000 toilets in schools, health centres, and public places to become a clean and healthy country and become OD-free by 2025.
Houses without toilets
A source, who is a temporary resident in the Kara area, told our correspondent that some houses that are close to the Ogun River, which flows underneath the Kara Bridge, lacked toilets.
It was gathered that some residents resorted to disposing of their faecal waste in the water bodies or by the road median
Some residents who spoke to our correspondent said the stench from the human excreta was worse in the Kara-OPIC area, noting faeces not only litter the median but also roadsides, the bank of the Ogun River and the cattle market.
They also said that the public toilet at Kara was not easily accessible to passersby in need of it.
As part of measures to restore environmental sanity to the road and end open defecation, the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, on October 23, gave a 21-day ultimatum to street traders on road setbacks along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The PUNCH had reported that the order concerned those operating at Kara, Isheri, and Warewa areas of the road more.
“So, my government will not wait and allow a small group of individuals in the name of trading, which is outside approved markets, put the safety and health of our decent people at risk,” the governor said.
All eyes are on the Ogun gov on what actions will be taken after the 21-day ultimatum expires this week.
The dearth of environmental health officials
A source from the government environmental health department, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said environmental health practice was meant to be regulated by the Environmental Health Council of Nigeria.
The source stated that in the past, each local government council had an environmental health officer, and said the absence of such created room for open defecation to thrive.
According to the WHO, for every 8,000 population, there must be an environmental health officer, who would work alongside other environmental health technicians and assistants to take care of the population.
“The major obligation of the environmental health officer is community service and preventive healthcare. This comprises sanitary inspection of premises, detection of nuisance in the premises, giving necessary advice and serving of default notice. If the occupants of the premises refuse to comply, they will take the matter to court or carry out enforcement of the nuisance they have detected.
“With the present population of Nigeria today, compared to the number of environmental health workers, who are not up to 15,000 distributed in the local state and federal governments, what we have now is the percentage of one HO to 58,000 population,” the source revealed.
The environmental office decried the low ratio of environmental health officers to the required population and the lack of regard given to the HO popularly called, Wole wole, in the South-Western part of the country.
The source also stated that the HOs were no longer respected whenever they went on inspection and enforcement in communities.
“People are no longer enlightened about the activities of the EHO, such that when we go on inspection, we won’t be listened to and what is being said would not be complied with. There is the need for more engagement, education and enlightenment of the EHO and increase their numbers in the public health education sector,” the source said.
An act emboldened by strangers
Some traders in makeshift stalls at the entrance of an estate by at Kara bus stop told our correspondent that the influx of strangers and homeless persons into the community was responsible for the increase in open defecation.
One of them, Saheed Rauf said, “There are lots of visitors coming into this area and when they are directed to the fee-paying public toilet by the bridge and the animal market, they would refuse to go there. So many of them, under the cover of the night and at dawn, defecate in the median and there is no one to arrest them.
“The government is the one that can enforce monitoring and prevention of open defecation. Individuals who are left with their feeding fee would not want to part away with such for them to ease themselves, they would rather seek a freer alternative,” he said.
Rauf confirmed that some houses in the area have no toilets and bathrooms and see the bank of the Ogun River as a convenient toilet.
‘A nuisance to public health’
A Public Health Consultant, Dr Tuyi Mebawonu, said open defecation has become a nuisance that causes trouble for the entire population.
According to him, this malady pollutes the air, land and water bodies, spreading diseases and disease-carrying vectors.
“If open defecation occurs on land, it attracts a lot of flies. Flies cause a lot of vector-borne diseases, including dengue fever, wetland virus, and malaria. Flies that touch these faeces would then pollute food and transfer bacteria from the faecal matter to water and food sources, especially fruits that are displayed openly by the roadside. Bacteria responsible for diseases such as dysentery, typhoid fever, and cholera are transferred from the faecal matter into the food and then we have oral faecal diseases.
“Quite a lot of the eggs of various parasites are transferred to individuals. The contamination of the water source also contaminates the fish and then people can contract diseases,” he said.
Mebawonu added that the long-term effects of stench from the polluted environment are heart disease, respiratory distress and certain types of cancers.
“Unfortunately, Nigeria is a leading country in open defecation. We overtook India some years ago because we were not building toilets and ensuring that homelessness is reduced. People that are exposed to open defecation tend to have poor nutrition and the issue of child mortality is higher among them,” he added.
Mebawonu urged Local Government Chairmen to build public toilets in wards, especially where there are lots of human activities and to put in place security teams to monitor and ensure cleanliness.
“When you charge people to use these toilets, it pushes them further into extreme acts. There must be something that the local government can provide in this regard. After the toilets are built, they must be monitored and compliance must be ensured.
“Another thing is that the toilet must be clean enough. If it is not clean, people would run away from it to urinate and defecate openly,” the public health physician pointed out.
He called for sensitisation of residents on the dangers of open defecation and engagement of stakeholders such as park managers, and construction workers, among others in areas prone to open defecation.
Mebawonu said, “Without public toilets, it would be difficult to ensure compliance against open defecation. I also charge non-governmental organisations to get involved. One of the key challenges is that the structure of the public toilets we have appears to be a bit cumbersome. But we can design easy means of constructing these toilets and more importantly, where we don’t have water, water should be provided to ensure the toilets are cleaned properly.
“It is not out of place for LGs to budget funds to ensure that that open defecation will go away from us because, at the end of the day, it would help the society to get rid of communicable diseases.”
A Professor of Community Medicine and Public Health at the University of Port Harcourt, Best Ordinioha, said the menace of open defecation is caused by the lack of toilets in public and residential areas.
According to him, the discontinuation of house-to-house inspections created a vacuum and made house owners build without adequate functional toilets.
The don noted that residents and passersby in an environment with faecal wastes stand the risk of coming down with diseases.
“Faeces can contaminate water bodies and persons who drink such can come down with diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, typhoid, cholera and even polio.
“Also, there are diseases called soil-transmitted worms such as ascariasis, caused by roundworms. Hookworm is caused by penetration. For example, those who pass through the median could step on the lava of the hookworm and get infected with the disease which is associated with abdominal pains, malnutrition and it sucks blood,” the don said.
The professor added that stench from places with open defecation can cause allergic reactions, including asthmatic attacks.
“The faeces can support the spread of fungi and when fungi produce their spores, which are the way they multiply, it goes into the air and produces what is caused allergens, and when people breathe them in, they react, leading to asthmatic attacks for those with asthma.
“But the main effects of indiscriminate defecation are the excretal related diseases, faecal oral infections can occur when faeces get into the mouth. They get into the mouth through five different methods, flies, fingers, food, fluids and fruits,” the public health researcher explained.
Emphasising the importance of building toilets in public places, he said, “Building a public toilet should be a service and it should be free and money devoted to maintaining it. People should be encouraged to use the public toilets and not forced to pay a fee. Though the fee is used for cleaning the toilets, it should not be used as a means of income generation because the health of people is the primary responsibility of the government.”
Ordinioha further said access to toilet facilities must be made mandatory in every house and public place.
“The government can make it easier by looking out for appropriate technologies such as the VIP pit latrine that has installed a small vent that would not make them smell or be infested by flies. For water-flush toilets, you have to consider the water needs, especially in communities where there are issues with water supply. You can use what is called a sports toilet where only a small quantity of water would be needed to flush the toilets,” he added.
No environmental enforcement officers
An Environmental Health expert and the President of a non-governmental organisation, Africa Environmental Health Organisation, Adeolu Afolabi, said the presence of illegal motor parks, and the large influx of people, amid inadequate toilets fuels open defecation in the area.
“Poor sanitary practices contribute mostly to children dying of diarrhoea and cholera. The lack of inadequate shelter is also an issue in the area,” he added.
He called for the provision of adequate public toilets and enforcement of environmental regulations to end indiscriminate defecation.
“Our culture and environment also make it easy for people to urinate or defecate anywhere and that needs to be stopped. There is a need for awareness campaigns to stop open defecation and indiscriminate urination, which is causing a nuisance. The dirty nature of the environment would deter people from visiting the area, and this would affect the economic output,” Afolabi said.
The president called for community cooperation and appropriate policies on sanitation at the local government level.
‘Ogun to begin enforcement’
The Ogun State Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya, when contacted, said the solution to the menace was the enforcement of the alternatives to open defecation.
He added that the provision of alternatives, as regards the building of public toilets, was the moral obligation of the government.
“We are still building more toilets and the onus is on the people to use the toilets. What we have to do is to carry out enforcement and I think we are already gathering our enforcement team to move out in mass.
“Before now, open defecation was prevalent around the Mowe-Ibafo area but we were able to stop that and what we are doing now is to take the same step towards addressing that of the Kara-OPIC area,” Oresanya said.
He added that the menace was due to the displacement of some northerners who now took refuge under the bridge.
The Commissioner revealed that two new public toilets would be constructed in the Kara area to complement the one operated by individuals
Oresanya said, “This underscores the need for the urban renewal of the entire area and we are working with the Ministry of Urban Development and Physical Planning to make sure that while not displacing some of our people there, we would be able to do something that would be befitting to the state.
“In a matter of days, we would carry out enforcement of the two-week ultimatum for roadside traders to leave the premises. We are not saying people from other tribes should not settle in the area but they have to follow the rule of engagement. There must be rules that guide how one operates and transacts in a community and we need to set the rule that guides that standard.
On plans to clean up the area after the enforcement team had been deployed, the commissioner added, “We are bringing in steam washers to clean up the area. It is disgraceful for humans to be so debased to the level where they would defecate right in the middle of a newly constructed road. It is not acceptable in any normal human settlement.”
Meanwhile, efforts made to speak with the Lagos State Commissioner of Environment, Tokunbo Wahab and the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Gbenga Omotosho, proved abortive as they did not respond to calls and text messages.
