One level playing field of all human beings: when we wake up in the morning, we ‘go’. That is just the way it is! King/Queen or slave, president or citizen, CEO or labourer, man or woman, rich or poor, adult or child, city dweller or villager, citizen of developed or underdeveloped country – on waking up, nature makes its grand and often urgent and relentless calls. Who are you not to respond to the all-important calls?
The fluids we drink and the food we eat all must come out a different route from how they entered after the body has digested and taken needed nutrients. If only all the stuff we load in stayed inside! I love banku and tilapia; can’t have enough of it. But after enjoying it, there must be an exit; the foul genie must get out of the bottle. Once the genie exits, it must stay outside.
It is in the response to the calls of nature to let out the stinky genie that we see the differences between the haves and the have-nots. The privileged just slide into comfortable rooms that are fit for others to sleep in, and simply let go, uninhibited – no drama. But for the many under-privileged, responding to the critical calls of nature presents challenges beyond measure – amidst high drama.
That is where we fail as a country. The toileting habits of our 51 year old country make a fail grade. Unsanitary toileting habits kill. Decent toileting should not just be for the privileged; it’s a human rights issue.
Figures released at a recent press conference of the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) put this nation to shame. Only an estimated 10% of Ghanaians have access to sanitary latrines/toilets. This implies that as many as 90% of our people don’t ‘go’ well. They eat all right, but the exit is by disgusting and shameful means.
The reality of our present latrine situation places us as far back as 1896 when Mahatma Gandhi, in recounting the grievances of Indian untouchables said: “‘Latrines for us!’ They exclaimed in astonishment. ‘We go and perform our functions out in the open. Latrines are for you big people.’” That in this century, a large majority of our people still go and perform their functions out in the open is uncivilized, nauseating and unconscionable!
Consider the following mathematics of national bowel movements. At a very low conservative level, if each of our 22 million people makes an average of four bowel movements per week, that puts us at an estimated 4,576,000,000 (rounded to 4.6 trillion) national bowel movements per year. Beyond the numbers, just imagine the sheer volume of the estimated 4.6 trillion bowl movements! Never mind. Nasty!
Out of this number, if only 10% have sanitary places to go, then a whopping 4.1 trillion bowel movements occur at unacceptable, unhygienic and uncivilized places throughout the country. These sites of unhygienic defecation include public and shared toilets, bushes, beaches, gutters and road-sides.
Black polythene bags are the usual suspects; they easily become the carriers of choice as some people have excelled in the act of loading and tying up their faeces to throw away indiscriminately. These packages are knick-named ‘night-rider’ or ‘take-away.’ Step and slip on one and see; the gooey stuff could rupture upon the exertion of pressure to spit Ghana’s disgrace all over you! They choke gutters too!
Some heady landlords are known to convert toilets into living quarters to increase rental space and monetary gains. The decentralized governments have bye laws on their books against this practice. However, rarely are these violations of the law enforced.
Beyond the home setting, another site where toilets should be in unapologetic state is the workplace. However, even some so-called prestigious organizations have nothing but scary rooms that are too unhygienic to be called places of convenience.
Those who live in houses without toilets and are fortunate to work in organizations with toilet facilities hold their stuff in as long as is humanly possible and carry to work. So what happens if these individuals can’t hold it long enough? They resort to the toileting practice of choice of many – Ghana’s shameful little black plastic bags. This practice puts a major wrinkle on our civilization.
How about those without homes? This teeming band of ‘homeless’ join the ‘take away’ disposers. Open defecation is not just prevalent in villages; it’s right under the glare of the city lights of Accra, Kumasi and Sekondi/Takoradi. It occurs in all the ten regions. It is however most widespread in the three northern regions where more than 70% of people have no access to any form of latrines. So of course, the key sites of choice are bushes.
A toilet is called different things by different people. In the English language alone, a few of the printable names are: small, bathroom, private, loo, potty, throne, john, restroom, washroom, commode, latrine or lavatory. A toilet is a class/status differentiator; the reality of the haves and the have-nots quickly translate into toilets. It is perfectly right to wonder when you see someone behaving as if they are all-that, how they ‘go’. Fact: some ‘go’ cosy, some ‘go’ awkward; some ‘go’ decent, some ‘go’ filthy.
There is also the matter of improper disposal of the privileged 10% national bowel movements. Take Accra for instance. The bulk of it ends up at “Lavender Hill”, a raw dumping site devoid of sanitary treatment (near Korle Bu Teaching Hospital). If you love fish like I do, this bizarre situation should bother you because any fish that ends up on your plate as a yummy meal might come from the poisoned pool in the general oceanic neighbourhood of “Lavender Hill.’
Gleaning our recent national history reveals a point in time when having more than one household toilet was criminalized under the PNDC administration. You were labelled bourgeois and stood the risk of being pronounced guilty without trial. But now, we know better. The poet Maya Angelou once said, “When you know better, you do better.”
What would happen if we do nothing to improve our national toileting situation? Currently, 80% of diseases reported at hospitals throughout the country are sanitation-related with its attendant high cost on national development. Considering the rapid growth in our population from 12 million in the late 1980s to the current 22 million plus, we could easily double up again in another twenty years. That will quickly shoot up our annual national bowel movements from the current 4.6 trillion to probably double the present figures. And, 90% of it might still not be disposed of hygienically – just left to sprawl about. That will indeed be a super filthy Ghana! And very sickly too! Clearly, we are leaving ourselves vulnerable to diseases of epidemic proportions.
So what to do? An election year is a unique opportunity. Don’t just sing ‘kum-baya’ with politicians. Let’s push the latrine agenda on them. When they come to power, we must relentlessly remind them until the toileting shame of our beloved country is resolved and moved to a level of decency. Every home, every school, every workplace and every public space must have toilets; nothing less. A toilet/latrine is not a luxury.
No comments:
Post a Comment