adminAndile Tshuma
To be honest, World Toilet Day sounds like a joke. Have we really run out of things to commemorate? It just sounds too trivial to deserve a worldwide commemoration.
However, while we are on the trivial tide, spare a thought for victims of cholera and families that lost loved ones to cholera open defecation and poor sewer reticulation being some of the major causes of the disease outbreak. World Toilet Day is therefore not a joke.
The world commemorates World Toilet Day every November 19. Social media was awash with messages about the day and the United Nations posted statements in commemoration of the day. This year, the theme was, “When nature calls, we have to listen.”
The name is catchy and humorous, but it serves to capture the attention of the public. And focus on the challenges of sanitation and toilets.
Nature calls on all of us and once or thrice a day, we find ourselves having to relieve ourselves. We take the importance of the toilet for granted because convenience facilities are all around us. However, to put the importance into context, have you ever been so pressed but away from home or any public facility with a loo?
The urge to relieve yourself is strong but there is just no toilet in sight? If you are in the bush, you find isixuku/ thicket, and just do the deed. After such an experience, I’m certain then that the importance of the toilet is recognised.
A number of communities in urban centres still use communal toilets, a case in point in Bulawayo are Sidojiwe, Mabutweni and Burombo communities. There is a lot of filth and the toilets are almost unusable.
Sidojiwe toilets are much better now after Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister Cde Raj Modi stepped in and renovated the place. The place is still a far cry from decent family accommodation, however, it’s now habitable after the installation of new flushing toilets, showers and water.
Open defecation is still a problem in many parts of rural Zimbabwe, with a number of households in villages not having toilets but resorting to the bush, on a daily basis. Human waste often finds itself into water bodies; our rivers, streams, dams and eventually into our drinking water.
While cities get treated water, some communities drink untreated water directly from the source, and imagine how much contamination there is, especially as we are now in the rainy season and all the human waste can easily flow into our water sources.
A toilet should be a basic right. For the dignity of all humans, it is necessary to ensure that everyone at least has a private place to relieve themselves.
Sanitation is not just about toilets and infrastructure, but it is also about social and behavioural challenges.
Proper and well installed sewer reticulation systems are important particularly in urban centres.
Municipalities must put stringent measures in ensuring that standards are followed and the correct pipes are used for water and sewer as substandard pipes may leak, burst and release effluent, leading to problems such as the last cholera outbreak that we had in the country.
According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated 2.5 billion people across the globe still practise open air defecation. This is still done in Zimbabwe although government and its partners in civil society are making frantic efforts to ensure that in all the country’s provinces, people have toilets.
An environment that lacks sanitation and clean water is an environment where achieving other development goals is hindered, and may be a next to impossible goal.
World Toilet Organisation founder, Mr Jack Sim popularly known as Mr Toilet, said it was sad that many children still did not know what a toilet was and were astonished when exposed to other communities with toilets.
This sounds familiar because even in Zimbabwe, there are some children who have never seen a flushing system toilet and are amazed that people relieve themselves ‘indoors’ as the job of going to the loo is viewed as dirty and is done away from the homestead in the bushes.
Ninety percent of open defecation happens in rural communities, and 220 million people are from Sub Saharan Africa. This means that our continent still has a long way to go in addressing human rights, as sanitation is indeed a human right.
Officially observing World Toilet Day as a country can be a great step towards making sanitation a priority on the national agenda, and on the global agenda as a whole.
It is sad that most governments fail to provide proper and essential ablution services for their citizens, resulting in increased cases of open defecation, leading to a plethora of waterborne diseases and bacterial infections such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid.
In Zimbabwe, open defecation was said to be at 40 percent according to a survey done in 2015.
World Toilet Day is particularly important considering that the Ministry of Health and Child Care said the cholera pandemic was primarily a result of people consuming water infected with human waste.
Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo said people were infected with cholera after literally ingesting human waste. With such revelations, the need for toilets cannot be dismissed as 40 percent is a staggering figure.
It has been observed that where there is poor sanitation, human waste often finds its way returning to the environment untreated, eventually polluting water sources and negatively affecting human health.
While World Toilet Day exists to inspire people to take action towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 which aims to achieve sanitation for all, it is unsettling that Zimbabwe is contributing to the estimated 4.5 billion people who are living without safely managed sanitation.
Access to a safe functioning toilet has a positive impact on public health, human dignity and personal safety for everyone.
Of concern is the pervasive practice of open-air defecation, which is extremely harmful to public health.
The failure by local authorities to manage sanitation systems is a cause for concern.
Over the years, this failure by local authorities and central government to allocate adequate resources has led to unnecessary loss of lives due to cholera and typhoid outbreaks.
Cholera and typhoid are preventable diseases that can only be eradicated when sanitation is properly managed.
In Zimbabwe, lack of functional, adequate sewage reticulation and lack of access to potable water continue to cause outbreak of waterborne diseases. Government must understand that the unnecessary death of people due to poor health and quality of life undermines efforts to develop sustainable communities.
Let not World Toilet Day be just a one day thing. Government and other stakeholders must ensure that all people have their right to sanitation. Let us appreciate our toilets, they serve a crappy job, but we are better off with them.
Online Reporter