South-East’s unending quest to attain open defecation free society by 2025 (5)

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

Oba community Anambra state dump site by sewage contractors
There was increased fear of epidemic break out in Oba community, Idemmili South Local Government Area of Anambra State over the continuous dumping of human excreta at the community by Sewage contractors.

These brought about friction between the leadership of Aboji, Aknano village Oba, led by Nze Dozie Nweke and some sewage contractors from the area.
Nweke told newsmen that before now the faeces were being dumped at the Idemmili River within Obosi/Oba boundary site but the contractors were stopped and they came into Aboji/Abaime/Isu land in Oba and finally diverted to Ugbo through Mgbo, Aboji, where presently they dump the faeces.
Nze Nweke told the contractors to vacate the present site in their own interest to stop any epidemic break out in the place which could result in the death of his people.

According to Nweke, “where they dump these faces is a residential area and the nearby farmlands are being threatened by the quantity of faeces brought by sewage tankers that number up to 250. On each day over 400 tankers laden with faeces come to the place to dump faeces there by creating the threat of epidemic spread.
‘’the president general of the community and the Regent have equally advised them to stop the dumping and look for an alternative place. The State Ministry of Environment has also visited and warned them to stop the dumping immediately’’.

Nweke called on Governor Willie Obiano to direct the Commissioner for Ministry of Health and Environment to immediately intervene before it gets out of hand, warning that the youths of the community are threatening to deal with them but I have been prevailing on them to exercise restraint.

But the spokesman of the contractors, Mr Osita Agina said their problem with Nze Nweke is sharing
formula of the proceeds realised from the land, saying ” we told him that nothing much comes out from there.”

He said the dumping site has been in existence since 2014 and other administrators before them were aware of the dumping site and it is just in the administration of Nweke that this issue came up again.

“They brought soldiers, police and other government officials against us but after explaining to them, they agreed with us that what we are doing is lawful because we have our authority paper from the state government,” he revealed.
You could imagine 400 trucks of faeces being dumped on a residential area every other day?

Otuocha axis and open defecation

Since 2015 I started visiting Otuocha market, it’s a few changes that have been introduced as Governor Willie Obiano and his wife, Chief Dr Mrs Eberechukwu Obiano have since answered the call to change the face of the market in some ways. A visit during the dry season is better but if it’s during the rainy season, it’s hellish. All the challenges in 2015 and 2016 are still present in the market though efforts are being made to tar the market.
It appears, the people refused to change. Some efforts have been done to improve the garage and toilets provided at one end of the market by Obiano’s wife, yet they still don’t use them as by 5pm I wanted to use the toilet it was under key and lock, showing nothing happened at the toilet on that market day. I asked and they said the key holder isn’t anywhere around.
People urinate and defecate inside the river , yet drink and wash with it. I noticed that between police station and Melcon fuel station that people defecate in the bushes.
I had met with an Umuoba Anam man and staff of Anambra Broadcasting service Awka ABS Chibuzor Okoye at the Otuocha market.
ASTA official Superintendent Ndumanya Nonye known as Barth said Obiano’s administration has brought sanity to the Otuocha market which was impossible before now. He said before now , if you enter into the market , you would be trapped but now one can have free entry and free exit. He didn’t speak about sanitation.
But in the past, Mr Michael Ifeatu confirmed no toilets in Otuocha market with over a million patronisers each Eke market day. He decried the status of Otuocha when Nigeria empties there every four days.
“People urine at will everywhere and faeces everywhere in the water. He confirmed too that Obiano restored electricity to Otuocha though they have not stopped having epileptic supply.
” the market is over 100 years now but have no toilets no electricity and  despite the volume of visitors to the market, the government would have attracted a Mobile base or that of Army to that zone. He said only police post cannot stand if the communal crisis begins. A Navy base for proper guide. He wept recounting agonies they pass through using one bank, First bank for the 4 local government areas.

Chief Alex Okonkwo from Iyiora community, a civil servant but resident in Aguleri said: ‘’ this market is a make shift and could best be called a thatched market. You can see that everywhere is filled with batches and thatched roof. There is no government impact here and that is needed to uplift the market.
‘’And the wharf has not been done and it is a problem because during off loading, you see people falling back into the River because of slippery mud and the labour becomes tedious on the loaders and off loaders. You move forward , you fall back. There is no refuse arrangement and no toilet in the market yet they collect taxes and market levies for the local government, state and Federal government. The market is dirty and too tight and needed expansion and proper organization. And the worst is that flood is threatening the market, like enter the park now and weep, everywhere is smelling , filthy and swampy, though some major link roads to parks and communities comprising the market area were tarred.
Chief Okonkwo had come to buy yams but could not swim the flood and water logged terrain and chose to stay at a shop to wait for somebody that volunteered to do the shopping for him. I searched for a popular name previously in the market. He used to be the Chairman of Park Management committee, Paul Nnalue but didn’t get him, but a driver, Livinus Ekweye from Aguleri said everything is wrong with the market.
He pointed out that he started driving in the market since 1988 and have noticed that rather than continue to upgrade for better the park continued to decay and rotten off without the slightest attention from the government.
‘’The park is dirty like pigs and is no longer containing the drivers. There is no parking space , no nothing but dirty and smelling. The ticket we buy in a day is too much including emblem. We buy three tickets for N50 each but gets nothing in return. The worst is that our passengers and ourselves have no place to answer the call of nature as there are no toilets and the continued usage of the water ways and bushes around or any little hidden place to defecate is an accident of epidemics waiting to happen.

’There is no borehole, no electricity, no nothing in the market  and you can see that with these swarm of passengers there is prospect for better business opportunities. Government can give us Mass Transit scheme like ANIDS of hire purchase arrangement. The park management is active and doing their part for a robbery free market.
At the one storey building of the Market management committee nobody handy to speak and neighbours could not say where they were and there was no phone number left to get them talking.
For a woman Butcher and one of the owners of United Butchers Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Christiana Amutaigbo: ‘’government officials come in every day to collect tax and all kinds of levy. We don’t have water here and we needed it though for now we are buying water to keep the slaughter clean and observe hygiene rules. We are looking forward that government would remember us in a unique way. The environment was neat and hygienically stood out from other squalors around even though at the back of same building though secluded from it were debris and dirty unimaginable with pigs having a field day.
Chidi Iheakachukwueme on transit to visit a friend at Eziagulu-Otu had this to say: ‘’I am a visitor from Uli, going to see a friend at Eziagulu-Otu. I have observed that there is need to develop a wharf here. They seriously need government attention because I have watched their pains bringing these loads of cassava, rice and others to the up land. There is need to develop here to thrive better and could you imagine that this river they drink and defecate there too. Look at that guy answer call of the nature with reckless abandon on top of the boat, when the government supposed to provide toilet facilities here. They defecate in the river, take bath inside the same River and drink it too. One day, there would be water disease or epidemics and nobody would know its source as Cholera killed many recently. There should be a boat park or loading bay for boat transport to thrive here.
Surprisingly, I watched women; men, girls and boys answer the call of nature on top of boats right inside the River. They did that with reckless abandon that if you did not remove your face, shame may take over you if caught peeping at the person. These acts are done inside the River bank or near the river bank heaped with refuse right inside the thriving market.

Michael Ifeatu is a boat driver at the offloading bay and was busy guiding his boat to ensure smooth offloading of bags of cassava , numbering over 500. He once in a while winked at the stranger watching their activities.

Ifeatu answered: ‘’Our brother, Governor Willie Obiano promised us a jetty here. He said it would start from Marine Police to UAC, a sand excavating company but up till now he has not done it and there is no sign of it. We need it and you can see I was watching you despising our environment from your looks because it is dirty but what can we do as individuals if government could not provide common toilets here’’.

He said fare from Odene-Aguleri is N100 and the trip would last for 5 minutes while that of Eziagulu-Otu is N700 and the journey lasts for 30 minutes. He narrated other fares and trip distances they cover by boat to communities located on the bank and sides of the River Niger known in that part as Omambala River. With the new rates of petroleum and lockdown things have since changed.
Within 2 hours, over 25 tippers have come and gone with heavy load of sharp sea sands, thus this reporter suspects before the end of the day over 100 tippers must have loaded sand at the beach.
For one of the owners of the beach pits where sands are loaded, Mr Peter Manafa , alias Omelora Ndigbo from Aguleri, who our correspondent met some time ago at his site of operation, things are moving fine and they are paying their IGR.
‘’You can see tippers loading and going away. There is no problem and we are paying our levies and taxes but there is no toilet as the one you are looking at is built for Umuoba Anam by the local government yet they are not using it. This place we are is Aguleri. They still defecate in the open and inside the River and that is paining us because we don’t like it as it is polluting the environment, it would be better for them to make use of it’’.
On his part, a member of Igwe in council Aguleri, Chief Joseph Osita while concurring all Manafa said, insisted the people needed infrastructural upgrade for development to have roots as well as a lasting solution to the crisis between them and Kogi communities since the discovery of oil on their land.
It was strange as this reporter looked and saw somebody drinking the River , where he was bathing and washing yams despite the heaps of market refuse at all rounds of the River bank emitting offensive odour.

And watching the face of this reporter indicating how unhygienic and epidemic infested, a then 13 year-old Primary 3 pupil, Chinecherem Uwaebuka from Aguleri said the River is better in the middle for drinking than at the edges where dirty and debris had made it to appear smelling and stinking.
He was seen washing 24 pieces of yam, setting it up in his wheel barrow to carry it for the owner and this reporter asked him why at his tender age he was busy pursuing money, he answered sharply, ‘’to get my school fees as school reopens soon.
His school is Premier Primary School Aguleri. He has a business partner who is almost 25 years older than he is then, a man in his early 40’s then. They charged N400 to wash and carry the yams to the garage.  He confirmed a boat of yam costs N400 or more depending on the content to offload from the boat and another N400 or so to throw it up the shore as in swing style, from one hand to the other until it gets up the market arena.

At the garage proper, then Financial Secretary of the Lorry Drivers Unit, James Iwuno lamented the dirty and swampy environment in the park despite the N180,000 they pay to government every month. He said the government should provide a toilet facility for them in the market and tar the garage to be accessible and dry. He insisted that during the rainy season they bear unbearable burden in the market pointing at the neglect and decay in the garage. On her part, Nweke Cordelia , a kiosk owner admitted that the business premises, levies and taxes paid by the traders have not yielded any result. She said they pay in association N50,000 per month. She added erosion is eroding the market.

Alex Ekwueme square Awka, National Light compound and others I witnessed the visitors who came for Anambra Police Games entering the bushes to defecate at various venues even with the provision of enough toilet facilities for the games by Obiano administration at some locations. There was a deluge of open defecators around Ekwueme square even before the games as those who come to early morning sports and sometimes evening sports defecate in the bushes nearby and urinate anyhow. Passers bye could not breadth properly while driving through some points at the Boulevard.
The same thing happens around some mechanic workshops, Odera Awka Township stadium inside Arthur Eze Avenue, and some streets in and around the state.
At the premises of National Light, some of their neighbours are not helping matters as they channelled their wastes into the National Light compound even throwing polythene containing human excreta into their relaxation arena. It was offensive.

Reacting on such development, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Light, Chief Chuka Nnabufe said: ‘’If you look at the ongoing construction, part of the plants that break the gutter is from another compound which is a ministry of the state. If you go close to our fence, you will see where palm trees broke our fence. It is felling our fence.  Some of our neighbours channel some of the carbon that emits from their generator including the water that comes from that place into our compound, such that we have to start building drainages and re-channelling the flood water.

‘’Most of the things that happen here, apart from the topography, is actually the channelling of waste; water wastes, flooding into the compound of the National Light by all the neighbours, three of which are government departments.

Sir Nnabuife concluded: ‘’Now, there is one of the neighbours that operates an eatery just by the top of the compound. What she does is that all the wastes that come from her personal wastes including defecations, sanitary pads, children diapers, etc are thrown over the fence into our compound. Unfortunately for us they throw it into the preserved gardens where we want people who come for news to sit and relax. You know when you come into a news environment, because of the tension either you are a guest or one of the writers, you have a place you can relax. When a writer is battling with blockhead, the writer goes to relax to gather the spirit together. That is where they throw those things and I ask is that the best way to be a neighbour? It is not. I don’t know how much we can do about it but it is causing a lot of challenges to us’’.
Continued on part 6 (https://www.odogwublog.com/south-easts-unending-quest-to-attain-open-defecation-free-society-by-2025-6/)       

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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