South-East’s unending quest to attain open defecation free society by 2025 (3)

By Odogwu Emeka Odogwu
During the long dry season, there were some actions we took that came after us as the first rains for the year 2020 dropped. The animal dungs, particularly the indiscriminate cow dungs across our streets and paths, and human excreta in the bushes and gutters though dried, floated as the flood drive them down to our streams and water sources. This is one out of the consequences of Open defecation. ODOGWU EMEKA ODOGWU x-rays the dangers of open defecation and the futile efforts in South-East to checkmate it before 2025.
——-Continued from Part two ?(Click here for part two)

Nkwo Igboukwu and Ekwulobia market experiences

I visited Nkwo market Igbo-Ukwu , Aguata local government area where I discovered that despite a number of  toilets established by government in the market, traders still prefer to use the bush situated at the far end of the garage. I saw people coming out from bush very close to the garage after defecating. They were bold to say the place has been their defecating place for long as according to them it’s difficult to locate the toilet under intense pressure. What they meant by that remains elusive.
Chike who said he deals on plastics said that his house is far from the market hence he could not afford to pay 200 to transport himself to his house or pay to defecate in a public toilet hence he opts for the ‘free’ one which is the nearby bush. He confirmed people even defecate near shops within the market when pressed.
Surprisingly and shockingly too, the toilets in the market were clean, tidy and without flies and people pay N20 for urine and N50 for defecation.

The story wasn’t the same at Eke market, Ekwulobia, also in Aguata council area. The market has two separate divisions vis a vis old eke market and new eke market. The two in one market has its separate public toilets where the public especially traders and market users ease off tension when call of nature takes a toll.
Ekwulobia new market has no fewer than 14 room toilets each well tiled. The toilets were kept clean on almost a daily basis for its users. There were no toilets several years back. There is now low patronage of bushes because the market union in Eke Ekwulobia has made it a rule that there would be no open defecation of a sort within and around the market premises after suffering for years of polluted open defecation practice within and around the market. Ebele Nnopu, the market leader had told me their pains and non-existence of toilets for years. The toilets were a recent development.
They pay N50 for urine and anything higher for faeces with a roll of tissue and a bucket of water to flush.
A trader in the market who identified herself as Ndidiamaka Okorie said majority of the traders in the market patronize the toilets either to urinate or defecate because it is being kept clean but few still prefer to defecate outside due to it being tagged ‘public’ toilet.

Okorie said: “ the toilet in the new Eke Ekwulobia is very clean and somebody can use it comfortably without fear of contacting disease. For me, any time I feel like easing, I do not hesitate to use the one provided in the market because the toilets are neat always.  But some people still prefer to use bush because of the public tag to the name. Such persons are charged 1,000 by Ekwulobia Traders Welfare Association (ETWA) when they are caught defecating in bushes around the market.”

But at Nkwo Umunze in Orumba South, the case of traders at Nkwo market Umunze was despicable as it was discovered that the two room public latrine for traders  had been locked up for long time due to poor management and care resulting to traders moving to hidden places and bushes in search of where to relieve themselves.

According to a road side onion trader in the market and who gave his name as Chimezie  Nwammuo, the bush along Umunze- Umuchu road has become their haven for defecation.
His words: “We do not have toilet in Nkwo Umunze again. The one we used to have was a two-room toilet where the whole market women and men go to defecate but as time went on the toilet became messy and proper care was no longer given to it. At first, an Aboki man was hired to clean the toilet at some intervals but because the market authority do not appreciate him very well, he abandoned the job and left. Thereafter, the toilet was nothing to write home about and was later locked up.  People started to use bushes around the market whenever they are pressed. Today, even the two- room toilet had been locked up and forgotten.”

“Each time, I want to defecate I just drive down to a nearby bush along Umuchu – Umunze road with my small bike where I can ease into the bush and get myself relieved. But the worrying thing is that each time I get to the bush, I hardly find space to step my foot into because everywhere is littered with faeces with flies perching noisily here and there.”

He further lamented that the market traders are forced to part with levies ranging from hundred naira and above for environmental sanitation yet the money is not used for the welfare of the market men and women. He stressed that unlike other markets in Anambra state, where good toilets are adequately provided for traders either by private individuals or government, Nkwo Umunze has no such provision on ground.
“Now at Nkwo Umunze, if a trader is pressed, he looks for an easy alternative like bush or hidden corner to relieve the pressure’’.

Another trader, Mrs Roseline Okoli who deals on stock fish decried the absence of the basic amenities which ought to be available in every market considering the punctuality with which they pay government levies. She said the market had generated huge revenue for governments yet they don’t look at what the market lacks.
”  We are law abiding traders here and we pay our taxes as at when due but government do not want to help us and build toilets for us. Before now, there used to be one toilet like that at the ukwu udara outskirt of the market but it is not functioning again due to improper maintenance. We the traders now resort to bushes for defecation. You can imagine a bush where the whole of Nkwo Umunze go to defecate. I’m a woman, so I’m not expected to just walk into a bush to defecate but I don’t have option than that.”

Further questions revealed that a well built and equipped toilet with bore hole was established at Ogbo mmanu section of the same Umunze, a short distance from the nkwo market. Sources disclosed that the toilet was built to serve the general public but majority refused to patronize it because the services were considered very expensive as each user is meant to part with #100 before he or she is permitted to use the toilets.

Surprisingly, students too enjoy open defecation than using toilets rather than be purveyors of healthy living especially when it comes to sanitation. Students are the major culprit of open defecation. A visit to the hostels of FCE(T) Umunze, Anambra state, it was discovered that most male students do not use the toilets prepared for them on the flimsy excuse that the toilets were not hygienic hence they resort to nearby bushes for defecation.
At another hostel addressed as Stanford lodge, students dispose their excreta in polythene bags before they flung into nearby bushes. In random opinion of some students, Davidson Chikodili said that it was the safest way to dispose human waste.
Chikodili said : ‘’for me, I drop my faeces inside nylon bag and move to the backyard where I fling it across the fence into a nearby bush. It is not as if we do not have toilets but I’m not the only one using it and I do not know what my neighbour could be suffering privately. So, that is the best way to be safe from infections from toilets.
Another student by name ThankGod Nwafor 300 level student of Electrical and Electronic Engineering said that he climbs a dwarf fence and occasionally a small tree to defecate. He said he derives so much joy in that style as breeze from the tree branches make the process lively.
Nwafor said: “I learnt the act in my primary school days where there was no provision for toilets. We derive joy by climbing anything to defecate because by so doing, I received fresh air without using one hand to cover my nose against smell that comes from toilets.
Most schools are provided with various set of toilets where students can easily go to defecate or pass urine but reports found that those toilets were often ignored for the bush where students deem it suitable for such activity and convenience.

Open defecation in Oraukwu community

In Oraukwu, Idemmili South Anambra State, most serving corps members indulge in the act of defecating inside bush. They claimed that it has been the safest form of defecation health wise considering the prevalence of diseases that were easily contagious through the modern toilet system.

The corps members claimed that the body is open hence should not be exposed to the microorganisms in the toilet, adding that as the population of corps members increase, the likelihood of contacting disease abounds.

In a chat with a corps member in Community Secondary School Oraukwu who gave his name as Ochuko, he said that the presence of flies in toilets pose danger to human health. He also said that his fellow corps members prefer the old bush style because they reside in a bushy area.

His words: “Defecating inside bush is the best for some of us here even though there is enough toilet that can serve us here. There are tiny flies that are dangerous to health in the toilets even after washing. We still prefer the bush because I personally do not like sharing same toilet with women. We have close to ten toilets serving the corps members, but we found out that when we defecate, some flies that are disease vectors fly around’’.

Another Corps member that spoke to our reporter, Michael Ihuoma said that defecating inside nearby bush was the safest way because of the various diseases that could easily be contacted while using the toilets provided for them.
“I defecate inside bush not because there are no toilets, but because there are bushes around us. I studied microbiology and I am aware of the dangers posed by all the so called latrines. We use water system but majority do not know how best to take care of it to prevent diseases.
At the lodge, most of us numbering up to 40 use the open defecation inside the bush. The sweetest period is the rainy season. During this period, sometimes early in the morning, we would go out to ‘shit’, few minutes later rain will fall and wash it away into nearby river where fishes will gladly feed on them. Many corps members here prefer bush to the toilets given to us. Most times we go in groups into the bush to defecate. Finding where to do it was never difficult for us because we have bushes everywhere.

“My friend and I started the habit of defecating in the bush. At the initial stage, we were given two toilets but we found out that females came in and started to use even our own despite being given theirs.

“As a micro biologist, there is one chronic infection that is called ‘oko junction’ in our local parlance. The disease is contacted through the water that splashes on the buttock when faeces are released into the water closet. There is microorganisms in the WC and once an individual sits on the system, it can easily be contacted and it can last at that particular spot for so many years unless it is treated adequately.

“Again, you know that our skin is open. You watch that once the weather is cool the hairs in our body will lay but once we are hot, our body will open so that sweat will be going out. So our body is so microscopic and once we just sit on it, the organism will just penetrate our system.  These organisms are injurious to our body system especially the private parts. It is also injurious to the Red blood cells.

Again, the girls were used to messing up the toilet while menstruating causing everywhere to produce bad odour and smell. Sometimes when I go in there, I could barely spend 10 seconds because of the odour that oozes from their activities there. We felt that bush is safer for us even though we are exposed to attacks from reptiles and other wild animals.

Another corps member, Wisdom Martins said he does his own in a very different way which is digging a hole around the compound where human movement is rarely witnessed.

“Defecation is about comfort. We defecate anywhere we feel is very comfortable to us. Personally, I use shovel to dig small holes in areas where we don’t normally step our feet to. Such areas can be near the fence, at the house backyard and even inside the bush.

“We dig grounds and afterwards we cover it with enough sand such that if an outsider visit our lodge, they hardly could detect the presence of such and it can easily decay and turn into manure for the soil and also to prevent it from polluting the entire environment because it is usually not far from the lodge.”

“Again, some of us after dropping our faeces on the bare floor uses shovel to ferry it across the high fence into several bushes and farmlands surrounding us. This particular act is done by our female colleagues who are easily terrified to enter the bush for fear of an attack by a wild animal.

Continued on Part 4?(https://www.odogwublog.com/south-easts-unending-quest-to-attain-open-defecation-free-society-by-2025-4/)

This investigative piece was written by Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, PhD. Odogwu, a culture and tradition aficionado and a foodie is a known Journalist, Editor, Media Consultant and famous Blogger, as well as Social Media Entrepreneur, publisher and Conversationalist @ www.odogwublog.com among others.

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