World Toilet Day: Proper sanitation saves us all

According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census , 1,477,747 households do not have toilets in the country, a situation that has compelled 17.7 per cent (over five million) of the population to engage in open defaecation.

The census also found that 1,925,906 households mainly resorted to the use of public toilet facilities, while only 4,823,062 households out of the total of 8,365,174 enumerated had access to toilets.

In the event that a tenant in a household without a toilet has a stomach upset in the middle of the night or even in the day but there is no public toilet close by, what happens next is anybody’s guess.

The issue of the lack of basic toilet facilities needs urgent attention to prevent another cholera epidemic from hitting the country as happened in 2014.

As a result of the self-denial of the world’s populace on the critical need for improved sanitation facilities, every day, over 800 children under age five die globally from diarrhoea linked to unsafe water, sanitation and poor hygiene.

It is to help break taboos around toilets and make sanitation for all a global development priority that the United Nations designated November 19 as World Toilet Day.

The resolution declaring the day titled "Sanitation for All" (A/RES/67/291) was adopted on July 24, 2013, and urged UN Member States and relevant stakeholders to encourage behavioural change and the implementation of policies to increase access to sanitation among the poor, along with a call to end the practice of open-air defaecation, which it deemed extremely harmful to public health.

Sanitation is also a question of basic dignity and the safety of women, who should not risk being victims of rape and abuse because of the lack of access to a toilet that guarantees some privacy.

The resolution also recognises the role that civil society and non-governmental organisations play in raising awareness of this issue and calls on countries to approach sanitation in a much broader context that includes hygiene promotion, the provision of basic sanitation services, sewerage and wastewater treatment and reuse in the context of integrated water management.

Without a safely managed, sustainable sanitation system, people often have no choice but to use unreliable, inadequate toilets or practise open defaecation.
Even where toilets exist, overflows and leaks from pipes and septic systems, and dumping or improper treatment can mean untreated human waste gets out into the environment and spreads deadly and chronic diseases such as cholera and intestinal worms.

It is to galvanise action on ensuring proper infrastructure for human waste to prevent it from getting into the open environment and also affecting groundwater that the UN has chosen “Groundwater and sanitation – making the invisible visible”, as the theme for this year’s commemoration.

The 2022 campaign, ‘Making the invisible visible,’ explores how inadequate sanitation systems spread human waste into rivers, lakes and the soil, polluting underground water resources, a problem that appears to be invisible because it happens underground and in the poorest and most marginalised communities.
Groundwater is the world’s most abundant source of freshwater which supports drinking water supplies, sanitation systems, farming, industry and ecosystems.

As climate change worsens and populations grow, groundwater is vital for human survival.

The central message of World Toilet Day 2022 is that safely managed sanitation protects groundwater from human waste pollution.

The Daily Graphic urges the government to work four times faster to ensure SDG 6.2--- “Sanitation and hygiene: By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defaecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations,” is achieved on time.

Policy makers must also fully recognise the connection between sanitation and groundwater in their plans to safeguard this vital water resource.

Toilets that are properly sited and connected to safely managed sanitation systems, collect, treat and dispose of human waste, and help prevent human waste from spreading into groundwater.

We are seriously off track to ensuring safe toilets for all by 2030, which is only eight years away. The time to act is now!