Curtailing The Menace Of Open Defecation

By Ebi COLLINS 

One of the threats to human health perpetrated by humans is the nauseating  penchant for Open Defecation.
 This unwholesome practice, still prevalent in our urban centers and rural areas, is the practice of defecating outside rather than the toilet.Those with a primitive urge for this abhorrent act often prefer surrounding bushes, fields, forests,  ditches, river banks, canals, or any available open space.
The standard cliche often adopted as an excuse for Open Defecation includes non access to basic sanitary services, absence of readily accessible toilet, and the last but not the least,traditional cultural practices.
Arising from the fecal contamination  of the environment by Open Defecation, the act often trigger adverse health effects culminating in life threatening diseases ranging from cholera,diarrhea, intestinal warm infection, typhoid,  hepatitis, polio to trachoma.

Given the health hazards associated with this menace, the state government, in collaboration with global partners and relevant agencies have embarked on series of campaigns and enlightening programmes meant to draw attention to the health implications of Open Defecation with a view of curtailing the practices.
A 2021 UNICEF report recorded that Cross River State's Obanliku Local Government Area was the first to attain open defecation-free status in Nigeria’s effort to eliminate open defecation by 2025.  It also noted that "However, with more than a half million of the state’s population still defecating in the open, there is still plenty of work to do."Through the Clean Cross River State: Use the Toilet campaign, the state aligned with national efforts to achieve the ambitious goal of eliminating open defecation. Ending open defecation was an essential step in protecting the lives of millions of the poorest and most vulnerable children in Nigeria and allowing them to live with dignity.UNICEF Nigeria’s WASH Manager, Mamita Bora Thakkar, also stated that “In Cross River today, more than half a million people are still defecating in the open, while only 31 per preschools have basic sanitation facilities.”

Today, in Cross River State, not much can be said of any significant improvement in that regard. Rather, open defecation has escalated to monumental heights in our rural communities, with the outbreak of cholera in most parts of the central senatorial district, earlier in the year, tangible evidence of the deteriorating water and sanitation hygiene sanitation situations in the State.Existing synergy needs to be strengthened for a formidable teamwork approach in a determined effort to curtail the menace of open defecation to guarantee attainment of optimum result.Rural communities in the State have continued to suffer from lack  of portable drinking water and toilets.
 In my opinion, the Bendeghe-Ethe kiem community in Etung Local Government Area is, arguably, the headquarters of open defecation practices in Cross River State.In my trip there, I realized the ancient community, lying in an undulating topography, is populated by old buildings, built centuries ago, without toilet circulation systems. Almost every stream in the community has a latrine by its side. And without any presence of pipe-borne water in the community, residents rely on those streams as the only source of water. Streams where unsanitary practices are done are used for bathing, drinks, cooking, and other domestic needs. Why would epidemics not break out?The same is said of almost all rural communities in the State, including Obanliku, the once UNICEF-certified open defecation-free Local Government Area in Nigeria. 
There is a clarion call for a holistic intervention to ensure the provision of pipe-borne supply of water  and hygienic toilet systems in communities.
However, Cross Rivererians got some relief upon Governor Bassey Otu's request for collaboration with relevant federal government ministries, departments, and  agencies (MDAs), on November 8, 2023, on the improvement of Water, Sanitation and hygiene (WASH), when he hosted the Minister of State for Water Resources and Sanitation, Hon Bello Goronyo, openly declaring that "We are working hard to improve water, sanitation, and hygiene. We want to eradicate open defecation completely in Cross River State. We need your ministry's support and also seek collaborations with relevant MDAs like the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to enable us to achieve our set objectives."

Otu who had also announced the provision of 400 million naira in the 2024 budget as counterpart funding for WASH projects in the State, described water as "one of the most important components of food production, while lauding the federal government's effort in improving water resources, especially in the River Basins, where the state is also a beneficiary."
In the meeting, his guest, the Minister of State for Water Resources and Sanitation, Hon Bello Goronyo, noted that there are several projects to be carried out by his Ministry in partnership with the State Government while commending Governor Otu for making budgetary provision as part funding for the projects billed to be executed in the state.There is therefore an urgent need for a consensus among Cross Riverians to the government for a policy framework that would tackle the water and basic sanitation crisis plaguing our urban slumps rural communities and cities. 
Such an approach would proactively address the unsanitary practices of open defecation in the 
State.