Open pit latrines are inhumane
………….They should be banned!
By Doris Yaa Dartey. The WatchWoman Column.
Some memories from our yesteryears can lag on forever. One of such memories of mine was the day my brother’s daughter fell into an open pit latrine. It feels like it happened only yesterday but this incident occurred 35 years ago. It did not happen in a faraway forgotten rural back-wood part of our then 27-year-old country. It happened right here in Accra, our capital city.
THE HORRORS OF A BAD MEMORY
The extent to which my memory of the incident is fresh leaves me wondering if my brother’s daughter also remembers it. By all definitions, my brother’s daughter is by extension my daughter! She has always called me Mama. At the time of the incident, she was about seven years old.
Would she remember that day in broad daylight when she slipped on one of the wooden planks that covered the cursed dug-out hole, and fell into that unthinkable foul and putrid remains of human living? As much as I desire to know her personal perspectives, I cannot bring up such a subject matter for conversation with her. The horror of the memory tortures me to this day so I cannot trigger any bad memories in this daughter of mine. I sincerely hope that her own memory of the incident is repressed.
Of course she did not remain stuck in the hole for so long. She was rescued in less than one hour by neighbours as panicky screams echoed loudly to houses around. But even 30 minutes is too long for any child or adult to be trapped in such an unholy hole.
Today, she is a young beautiful woman. Periodically, over the past 35 years, I have reflected on the extent to which this mishap might have affected the trajectory of her life. Did it affect her self-esteem? Did it influence her capacity to stay in school and acquire a good education? Does the way she had related with people over the years been dictated by that unfortunate open latrine incident? But especially, has the experience impacted positively on her love and care for her only child, a girl, who is currently at the same age at which she fell into the open latrine?
But more specifically, how many Ghanaians have fallen into open pit latrines? How often does such horrendous incidents occur?
THE SAD SITUATION OF OPEN PIT LATRINES
Any repressed memory I have had of the incident rushed to the surface when recently, I visited the old homestead and came face-to-face with my past. To my utter shock, the house still has a smelly open pit latrine. This time, it was located at the back corner of the house. It is as if civilization has not come to that household. A little bit of civilization, buttressed with enforcement of the byelaws of district assemblies, would have pushed households to construct improved hygienic household toilets.
Open pit latrines are inhumane. They are just as horrible, or probably worse than the practice of open defecation. The traditional open pit latrines are uncivilized hell holes into which fowls, dogs, children and small-sized human beings fall. Knick-named eleven-eleven, pit latrines are places of shame. They steal human dignity.
They consist of dug-out holes on which wooden planks provide dividers and places to rest the feet during a squat. They may or may not have enclosures and roofs. Mostly, they are open to the elements of rain and sunshine. Reptiles can crawl into the spaces. Very offensive stench emanates from pit latrines, making them very unhygienic for human usage. By their nature, open pit latrines cannot be hygienic.
Ideally, the state of Ghana must ban all open pit latrines as a way of claiming and operationalizing the total independence of our country. It is unconscionable for a country that is naturally endowed with gold, crude oil, bauxite, cocoa, arable lands, and water bodies to tolerate having any of its citizens respond to nature’s call in such extremely unhygienic places. Open pit latrines should be consigned to the garbage dumps of our distant history.
Communities that become open defecation free through the construction of well-maintained sanitary household latrines are quick to destroy their pit latrines. When individual households have their own toilets, their pride and sense of dignity become elevated; and will not reduce themselves to entering stinky public open latrines.
A few months ago, I travelled to the Ajumako area in the Central Region. As I entered Ajumako Assasan, trash greeted me. Plastic waste mixed with other waste scattered the roadsides in heaps. Without realizing it at the time, in retrospect, I now realize that the entrance communicated the psyche of the community. It is amazing how disorder and filth says much about a place and its people. The psyche of a people is locked up in the outward manifestations.
The sleepy community of Ajumako Assasan has two “eleven-eleven” open pit latrines (one for males, and the other for females). The name “eleven-eleven” is a description of the wooden planks that cover the pit, to serve as feet rests. I decided to bravely enter one of their open pit latrines. The flies in those spaces are large, bluish, loud and robust, and healthier than normal flies in other spaces. The stench stayed on me for a couple of hours long after my visit to the community.
Generally, Ghana is doing poorly on the global open defecation front. It means that across the length and breadth of our country, when nature calls, a high number of people respond to the call in unhygienic places. Public schools, universities, hospitals, restaurants, homes, and even government offices have latrines that are disease-spreading places. It is known that some home owners go to the extent of converting the toilets in their houses into extra rooms for rental income. So as a country, we have a long way to go to get our latrine acts together.
NANDOM IS THE FIRST ODF COMMUNITY
Good news are good for the soul. This good news is not the equivalence of launching a satellite, but celebrating small achievements can spur us on to greater heights and to keep our hope alive. On our developmental journey, we do need good news to keep us from weeping. Laughter is good for the soul. The soul of Ghana needs some good laughter.
It is therefore heart-warming to know that a lot of effort is being made to take away this national disgrace of open defecation. Earlier this year, the Nandom District in the Upper West Region was declared open defecation free. This suggests that the residents in the district no longer have open pit latrines.
If ongoing interventions across the country are followed through, more communities, districts and regions will also be declared open defecation free. So town by town, district by district, the independence of Ghana will be realised.
The male 11/11 public latrine in Ajumako Assasan (with a political campaign poster on waste bin)
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