How illegal structures, bars aggravate open defecation in Plateau

Defecation in the open is now rampant in parts of Jos, Daily Trust on Sunday reports.

There are about 30 people living in a rented compound which contains 15 bedrooms around the Kufang area of Maingo junction of Jos in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State. Seth Steven who is one of the occupants of the rented apartments told Daily Trust on Sunday that with only one functioning toilet and a bathroom by the side, the tenants have no choice but to excrete in polythene bags which they dispose behind the house.

“If we are pressed, and there is someone in the toilet, we have to enter the bathroom beside it, which is where we ease ourselves and discard it behind. It is not as if we like doing it but there is only one toilet and we are many so there is no alternative,” he said.

Children from the compound and others around Kufang are most times escorted by their parents to defecate at alleys in broad day light while the parents and other adults only do so late at night. The same parents join visitors to the area to cover their noses with their palms as they hurriedly walk pass the area to get to the main street.

For Susan Jurbe, an office assistant, the sight of people defecating in the open has become a common phenomenon where she lives. The 53-year-old and many others who live in Kufang habitually cover their noses when walking through the main alleys in the residential area.

This is due to the pungent smell that emanates from the piles of faeces mixed in urine and slimy gutter content.

Jurbe told our correspondent that it gets worst during the raining season when the waste is mixed with muddy waters from the gutters.

“We sometimes have to change routes and walk through the main road which is further than going through the alleys. You think this is bad, you need to come here during the raining season, when the area is blocked and children have to pass through the dirty, contaminated water to get to their homes,” she said. The windows in Jurbe’s home facing the alleys are permanently shut. Others seal theirs with corrugated roofing sheets from behind. “You open windows to get fresh air but on the contrary, it is the pungent smell that oozes in,” she stated.

Lydia Choji, a retired Nurse, who built her retirement home in the area and has resided there in the last 20 years, described the environment as “very filthy and offensive to human existence.”

She explained that “it baffles me when people build houses without provision for toilets and the next thing is that they turn the surroundings into their toilets. They defecate from their houses, wrap it in disposable polythene bags and throw it out.”

The retired matron often pays workers to clean the alleys but recalled a nasty experience she once had when she attempted to do it herself.

“I didn’t have the money to pay for the service so I went out with my daughters to clear the surroundings and behold, a lady had defecated and flung it towards us. I was lucky that it did not touch my face but it fell on my dress,” she stated squeamishly.

For Jonathan Ishaku who lives in Gora Topp community of Rayfield of Jos South said the practice is also common among residents because many people build their homes without provisions for toilets.

“This thing has been in practice for more than 40 years in this environment, most people don’t build toilets, they prefer to go outside and defecate. So this kind of thing has influenced other people in the environment to copy the negative culture,” he said.

Ishaku said with a lot of liquor joints situated within residential areas, the practice has become more common stating that, “they drink, smoke and defecate nearby. The liquor bars don’t provide toilet facilities for their customers.”

Jurbe corroborated his position when she explained that there are two types of people who defecate openly in the Kufang area, “those who live in compounds without toilets and those who visit liquor joints where there are equally no toilets. There is such a place close to my house and when they drink, you hear them at night defecating by my window.”

To erect any structure around Jos-Bukuru metropolis, one must obtain approval from the Jos Metropolitan Development Board (JMDB) and one of the requirements is that the developer must provide at least two toilets if it is residential apartment.

“If it is a commercial place like an institution, then the number of students determines the number of toilets that would be provided.

There is no building that is approved by JMDB without toilet, but the problem is, there are a lot of illegal structures within Jos and Bukuru metropolis. About 90 to 95 per cent of the structures within those areas do not have approval from the JMDB,” said the board’s General Manager, Mathias Hata.

Hata said though the board was concerned about the increasing number of people who build homes without provision for toilets, the major challenge has to do with enforcement. “We find out that when we mark out illegal structures one or two weeks later, the construction would be completed simply because we don’t have facilities for enforcement.

But what we have been doing of late is holding meetings with community leaders so as to enlighten and reorient the people,” he said.

“We have reactivated our courts, we prosecute our cases there, we have environmental laws and in the course of our inspection if we discover that you do not have sanitary facilities, we serve you a warning note but if there is no compliance we take you to court,” he explained.

Perusing the Plateau State Environmental Protection and Other Matters Law 2000, our correspondent found the law does not clearly state about open defecation. Part V section 11 (1) however prohibits the throwing of refuse and waste of any description on the streets, gutters or open space while section 20 (1) (2) and (3) prohibits the use of bucket latrines as well as night soilmen for disposal of excrement or faeces.

The General Manager of Plateau Environmental Protection and Sanitary Agency (PEPSA), Christopher Batai however said a pilot orientation project on open defecation had commenced in Riyom and Shendem local government areas to ensure the menace is eradicated.

He said a committee was setup by the Plateau State Ministry of Water Resources which has created a unit saddled with that responsibility.

PEPSA, JMDB, Ministry of Health and the Plateau State Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (PRUWASSA) are members of the committee.

Batai explained that few models toilets were constructed so that the rural people can take example from such structures. “From there, the local government health officers are trained to go from village to village, the primary health care facilities to educate the rural people about the danger of open defecation,” he stressed.

Despite the efforts, it seems unlikely that Plateau State would be able to eradicate open defecation in the nearest future. The recent announcement by the Minister of Water Resources, Engineer Suleiman Adamu that Nigeria remains second among the countries still practicing open defecation globally and first in Africa, paints a gloomy picture especially since India, which ranks first among the countries is expected to be certified open defecation free by October this year.

Most of those who spoke with Daily Trust on Sunday had no knowledge that there is a ranking in that regard neither are they aware that a national roadmap towards making Nigeria Open Defecation free by 2025 was in existent.

Lydia Choji who feels living in her Kufang home has become a necessary evil, however believed the only way open defecation can be eradicated and for the country to meet the 2025 target was for government to reintroduce active sanitary inspectors. “This is definitely not the only community where open defecation is prevalent, but if they bring back sanitary inspectors they will curtail this menace,” she said.