From bush to toilet: Relief for Oyo villagers after 183 years of open defecation
Jago villagers in Oyo State are delighted that after 183 years of existence, they now have a dignified means of defecation through the installation of Sato Pan toilets but Olufon village does not have any toilet. However, a handful of Jago villagers with toilets struggle to keep up with the monthly repayment of the installation costs they received as loan, writes GRACE EDEMA.
Adeola Rasaki, 17, moved swiftly into a bush near her hut to defecate before going to school that early Wednesday morning in October.
Rasaki, who lives in Olufon village, is a Senior Secondary One student at Jago Secondary School, located in a nearby village called Jago in the Ona-Ara Local Government Area of Oyo State.
As soon as she found a safe place to relieve herself, Rasaki suddenly saw a snake on that spot. Sensing the presence of a human, the reptile quietly crawled away. However, Rasaki immediately lost the urge to relieve herself.
Coincidentally, later that day, our correspondent visited Jago village where Rasaki’s school is located, and she narrated her experience from that morning.
However, she was able to defecate safely and comfortably in a Sato Pan Toilet, which was recently constructed in her friend’s house in Jago village.
Rasaki, who was among the cultural troupe singing and dancing to welcome some United Nations Children’s Fund representatives visiting the village to celebrate the installation of Sato Pan toilets, looked sad despite the festivities.
Her near-death experience is common among residents of the Ona-Ara Local Government Area, Oyo State, where Olufon and Jago are part of the villages.
A young tailor, Alao Adisa, in Olufon village, sitting in a ramshackle shed, told our correspondent that he had never seen a toilet in his 35 years of existence.
“We don’t have toilets here at all. We always have to defecate in the bushes. We hope the government will remember us one day and fund toilets for us or provide a public toilet where we can go. All my friends and relatives who got the Sato pan in Jago Village are struggling to pay for it. If the government could provide us with toilets, it would be a great help.”
Meanwhile, The PUNCH gathered that there had been a cholera outbreak in the community due to open defecation. There were also many stories of people being bitten by snakes and others falling into wells and ditches while trying to defecate openly in bushes or spaces around them.
Although the crowd danced rhythmically to the cultural songs sung by Rasaki and her mates from Jago Secondary School, located directly opposite the village head’s house, the reality of their inability to repay the loan they took from a microfinance bank for the construction of the toilets was apparent upon closer observation.
For these villagers, constructing the Sato Pan toilets was the first dignified means of defecation, marking an end to open defecation and its associated health implications.
The village head, also known as Baale, Chief Olusegun Oparinde, revealed that Jago Village, established in 1840, had its first decent toilet in 2023.
A Sato Pan toilet consists of a pan with a base and a comfortable sitting part attached to a slightly raised concrete platform made of building blocks. The ones installed in some houses in Jago are blue, with a V-shaped opening and a cover at the narrow end to guard against smell.
A Sato Pan was constructed at the cost of N70,000 each as of October 2023, both for the purchase of the pan and installation.
Being peasant farmers and petty traders, they all complained about their inability to meet their debts.
Looking dejected in her hut in Jago Village, Agnes Faju said, “Yes, we now have the toilet, but paying for it is the problem. I am 58 years old. I sell locust beans and some little things, and from there, I buy food for myself and the children living with me. I called a family member in Lagos who only gave me N5,000. I still owe N65,000. Is there any way the government can help us? Please tell the government to assist us in paying and provide toilets for other houses.”
Jago before Sato Pan toilet
Jago village, a sleepy community about an hour’s drive from Ibadan city, is home to peasant farmers and petty traders.
In the absence of proper toilets, Jago villagers resorted to ‘short put’, local parlance for open defecation. If they did not go into the bush to answer the call of nature, they defecated in nylon bags or paper and threw them into the bush.
Remarkably, it was not uncommon to meet people in their 40s and 60s and children who had never used a proper toilet, having practiced open defecation their entire lives.
Jenyo Adeniran, 43, who has four children, narrated that she had always defecated in the bush near her hut throughout her 43 years of living in Jago village. She is happy that she has the toilet but lamented that she had been struggling with the payment.
She said, “We defecate in the bush, and many people have contracted cholera because of the indiscriminate manner we defecate around the village. People are always falling ill and going to the health centre for treatment. We are happy that we now have the Sato Pan toilet, and I am one of the beneficiaries. Repaying is now a major issue, I have tried. I make N1,500 from my trading every day, which is what we use to eat and others, so how do I pay?”
Maria Balogun, who sells (pap) and (beans pudding) every evening in Jago, also said she had never seen a toilet in her 62 years of living in Jago.
“They have marked a spot outside my hut for the construction of a sanitary facility. It is very expensive, and although we are expected to pay in installments, I don’t have wealthy children who can help me pay off the debt. I will have to struggle to manage the payments.”
This disorganised method of handling faeces exposed the community river, which is the sole source of water for domestic use, to pollution.
Explaining the situation to The PUNCH, the community head, Oparinde, said, “When rain falls, the faeces flow into the river—the same river where we fetch water for cooking and drinking. There is no way we won’t have cholera outbreaks from time to time. We always have it.”
A Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Ilorin, Tanimola Akande, described the situation as unhealthy and dangerous.
“It is a horrible thing when you defecate in the open; you are making the people around the place susceptible to diseases. Flies will get in and transmit all manner of diseases. When you defecate somewhere, it is washed into the river and consumed by other people in another village,” Akande said.
The 2021 Water Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping report revealed that about 1.3 per cent of GDP, or N455bn, is lost annually due to poor access to sanitation, healthcare savings, and productivity.
The community head told our correspondent that the introduction of the Sato Pan toilet to the community was welcomed with enthusiasm.
Oparinde said, “This Sato Pan toilet is of great importance to our community because we always used the bush to defecate both in the day and at night, making the whole environment reek of offensive odours. You couldn’t walk a pole without stepping on faeces; it was so embarrassing. No one in the village had a latrine except my own house, which has just one. Everyone defecated anywhere around them.
“But it is dangerous. Some people would just faint, there would be cholera, some have fallen inside wells, and there have been some who have had snakebites.”
How Jago village got toilet
To create greater access to sanitation and hygiene, the state government and UNICEF pooled a total of N80m. This amount was allocated towards the implementation of the Sanitation Revolving Fund, which offers households a single-digit interest rate of nine per cent for the construction of sanitation facilities.
Being a fairly educated village head, Oparinde, after learning about the partnerships involved in the construction of Sato Pan toilets aimed at ending the risks associated with the age-old practice of open defecation, initiated various awareness programs to convince the villagers why they must invest in these toilets.
Despite his efforts to raise awareness and explain to his community members the importance of investing in Sato Pan toilets, Oparinde said no one was forthcoming with any plans to take up the offer. But he devised a means.
“When I noticed that no one was showing interest, I decided to use a carrot-and-stick method. I locked up some houses and told them the government did it. When they heard this, they started begging me, and I told them I would only speak on their behalf to the government if they agreed to invest in the Sato Pan toilets.”
He explained that once they all agreed to invest in the Sato Pan toilets, he had them sign into the acquisition process, after which their houses were reopened. He lamented that they were still defaulting in payment.
Process of acquisition
A Sato Pan was constructed at the cost of N70,000 each as of October 2023, both for the purchase of the pan and installation.
The acquisition of the Sato pan toilet by each household was done through installment payments to a microfinance bank called NUT MFB.
Every home signed to a credit loan at the MFB after which they were to make a refund of N10,000 per month for seven months.
Unfortunately, the majority of these villagers have not been able to pay back the loan after signing and completing the forms.
Every home signed to a credit loan at the MFB after which they were to make a refund of N10,000 per month for seven months.
Unfortunately, the majority of these villagers have not been able to pay back the loan after signing and completing the forms.
Two major engineers called Toilet Business Owners in Jago Village coordinated and installed the toilets for the villagers who had to open an account in a Microfinance Bank where they were expected to receive a refund of N10,000.00 every month.
Unfortunately, the villagers who are peasant farmers, and petty traders are defaulting on the repayment plan. Although they now have the Sato pan toilet installed on credit, however, a handful of them have not been faithful to the repayment.
One of the engineers, Taiwo Idowu, revealed that they had constructed 70 toilets in Jago only. He stressed that he and his teammates had a plan to stop the credit installation, due to the villagers’ inability to refund the loan.
He narrated, “We have constructed more than 70 toilets in Jago, but we have issues with payment; they are not paying. After building the toilet for them, the next step is refunding the money, but the people are not ready to refund because most of them are underprivileged.”
Idowu mentioned that the villagers owed him N3m so they had stopped installing for anyone.
“They all like the toilet, but to pay back is the issue because they are less privileged, they can’t afford it. Most of them struggle to feed. If there is any assistance the government can give them, they are trying to pay but it’s difficult. If the government can pay part of it for them, the better. There are some villages we didn’t go to because of distance and we know they may not be able to pay. To go to such villages costs N4,000 on a motorcycle, popularly called Okada. When you go to ask for their debt, no one shows any commitment, thereby coming home with nothing.”
In response to Idowu’s complaint, Oparinde appealed that “We have been begging them not to stop the installation of the Sato pan toilets. On my own, I sponsored the construction for four families because I knew they couldn’t provide three square meals conveniently. We have introduced the contributory method of payment.”
A farmer in Jago village, Aderemi Oyewunmi, told our correspondent that he was grateful for the Sato pan toilet loan initiative at the back of his hut, he, however, was finding it hard to repay the loan.
“Things have not been bright here financially, I am happy that I have the Sato pan toilet but I have only paid N8,000 out of the N60,000, since July when it was installed. There is no money, I am not making much from farming and mostly what I produce is what we eat in the house. It is not that I don’t want to pay but I am not earning enough to be able to do so.”
A petty trader, who is also a widow said, “It has not been easy making the refunds I have not paid anything yet. In a day I make just N1,000 or less, so how do they want me to gather N10,000 without closing up my little business.”
The villagers’ inability to refund the loan or afford the cost of the Sato pan toilet is a discouragement to the continuity of a decent toilet system which thereby, slows down the drive towards stopping open defecation in the community.
Experts, government react
On the contrary, Akande explained that the partnership committee ought to have access to the people’s ability to pay before embarking on the construction, adding that the villagers should also not expect to get the toilet installation for free.
He said, “Usually, for such a project, you want to do a mini-assessment; willingness to pay the cost, will they be willing to pay? We are used to free things but when you give things for free, it is not sustainable. The villagers need to make provision for their toilets. It is not also good for the Toilet Business Owners to start the project and abandon it because they didn’t get the villagers’ cooperation in terms of payment. They need to prevent open defecation.”
He called on the government to enforce the availability of toilets in homes in Oyo State and across the country.
“Government can provide public toilets, borehole. The Local Governments can do this but they always behave like they are not meant to do anything. LGs should do its work and go round to make sure every home has a toilet.”
The Oyo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Dotun Oyelade, in a chat with The PUNCH at a two-day media dialogue on open defecation-free in the South-West States, held in Ibadan, the Oyo State said the government would punish anyone caught defecating in the open.
He said the move to penalise open defecators was part of efforts aimed at achieving the national target of ending open defecation in Nigeria by 2027.
He said, “The State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has unequivocally mandated the Ministry of Justice to ensure the prosecution of anyone who dumps, refuses, or defecates openly. The penalty, when fully in place, will promote behavioural change in the hygiene of citizens and curb open defecation.
“The government is willing to effect the necessary behavioural change in open defecation, working with UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene action plan. In this state, we have adopted the WASH action plan; if need be, we will back it up with legislation.
“And the Ministry of Justice has been mandated to penalise defecators and those dumping refuse in illegal sites. Also, law enforcement agencies will do their bit. Sadly, Nigeria has taken over from Egypt by recording the highest rate of open defecation. And the government will deal decisively with open defecators,” he insisted.
Oyelade, who said the government, before 2027, would ensure much improvement in the social menaces and all other diseases plaguing the state, however, appealed to the residents to patronise government-approved waste consultants and stop the unhygienic practice of open defecation.
“To this end, billboards will be erected at major junctions and entry points of the state, to discourage anyone from practising any environmental infractions, and the penalties. The government is bent on ensuring residents obey the law of social etiquette.”
Similarly, the Director of the state’s Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, Mrs Titilayo Obayemi, said the state government had in 2022 unveiled a roadmap on open defecation.
Obayemi said the roadmap would enable the state to plan how the 33 Local Government Areas in the state would be open defecation-free by the year 2028.
She said the practice of open defecation in the state was worrisome and the government was doing everything possible to meet its target of open defecation-free society by 2028.
She said the state government had started working in two local governments, Ona-Ara and Egbeda as pilot local governments to end open defecation.
“We have started mobilisation of the stakeholders on it, we have picked two LGAs with the help of UNICEF and we have been able to trigger some of these communities.
“We have about 800 communities in the two LGAs and we have triggered some of them to be open-defecation-free,” she added.
With the growing concern about meeting the 2028 open defecation free target, the Oyo State Government and other stakeholders need to speed up efforts in helping low-income communities access decent and affordable toilets.
Oyo battles open defecation
For years, Oyo State has tried to eliminate open defecation without much success. In 2021, the state government introduced 50 mobile toilets across public spaces, and in 2022, the state House of Assembly passed the Open Defecation Free Bill.
Together with UNICEF, they launched the Open Defecation Free Roadmap and the Clean Nigeria Campaign and declared an emergency in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector.
Yet, 74 per cent of schools in the state still lacked access to basic sanitation services in 2023, UNICEF revealed, and Oyo still ranks second on the open defecation index.
The 2021 Water Sanitation and Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping report revealed that about 5,020,920 residents, representing 53.7 per cent of the total population of Oyo State, practice open defecation, while about 3,621,520, representing 43 per cent, use unimproved toilet facilities.
The report also stated that only 8.4 per cent of households have access to basic hand-washing services.
UNICEF Chief for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Nigeria, Ms Jane Beavan, in a statement called on the state government to fast-track its efforts to meet its target of ending open defecation by 2028.
She urged residents of Oyo State to support the efforts of the government to end open defecation.
Beavan said, “Children are the ones that suffer the most when there are outbreaks of diseases like cholera and others. More than half of the people of Oyo do not have access to safe toilets, and that means more than half of the population practice open defecation.”
UNICEF Lagos Field Officer, WASH Specialist, Mr Monday Johnson, speaking at the 2023 World Toilet Day Celebration in Ibadan, said 83 per cent of motor parks and markets in the state also lacked toilet facilities, despite open defecation’s effect on health, education, nutrition, and sometimes exacerbating poverty.
At the celebration organised by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in collaboration with the Oyo State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency and UNICEF Lagos Field Office, Johnson, said UNICEF had supported two local governments’ efforts to end open defecation, but nothing happened, and it is time for the state to tackle the problem in the remaining 31 local governments.
Open defecation crisis
The Nigeria Bureau of Statistics says nearly 48 million Nigerians practice open defecation. It said 95 million Nigerians have no access to basic sanitation services. That is nearly half of the country’s population.
In 2019, Nigeria overtook India as the country where open defecation is most prevalent.
In July 2023, UNICEF said Nigeria would need to build at least four million toilets to end open defecation by 2025.
The Federal Government targets 2027 to end open defecation in the country.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention recently warned the public of the increasing trend of cholera cases as the rainy season intensifies.
The NCDC stated that from January 1 to June 11, 2024, over 1,141 suspected and over 65 confirmed cases of cholera, resulting in over 30 deaths, had been reported from 96 LGAs in 30 states.
The centre noted that the 10 states contributing 90 per cent to the burden of the current cholera outbreak include Bayelsa, Zamfara, Abia, Cross River, Bauchi, Delta, Katsina, Imo, Nasarawa, and Lagos States.
On June 11, 2024, Lagos announced a major cholera outbreak in some Local Government Area including Lagos Island, Eti Isa, Agege, Oshodi to mention a few, which led to 21 deaths and 401 hospitalised as of press time.
