Last Sunday marked World Toilet Day (WTD), amid rising concerns for proper human waste management as prescribed in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 with special focus on underdeveloped countries.
By Kennedy Nyavaya
The SDG aims to reach everyone with sanitation, halve the proportion of untreated wastewater and also increase recycling and safe re-use by 2030.
Running under the theme Wastewater, this year’s WTD passed as a non-event in Zimbabwe yet its aim is of paramount significance in arresting the negative effects of poor sanitation and dirty water which has spawned diseases and even deaths over the past years.
A significant number of local citizens, both in rural and urban areas, still use bushes and other public spaces for relieving themselves when Mother Nature calls.
Of the over 67% of the country’s population living in remote areas, about 40% is said to still be using bush thickets for faecal excretions and urination.
Despite the water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash) programme, which was spearhead by World Vision and funded by Unicef, the health hazard has continued to persist as a result of either lack in toilets or utter disregard for the importance of using them.
The rural Wash programme (RWP) which started in 2012 was also earmarked to provide sustainable access of safe drinking water to 2 375 000 people in 10 000 communities.
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For the rural folk, bush defecation has even presented economic consequences on cattle ranchers as it leaves the animals prone to measles after livestock consumes grass with eggs passed from the faeces of an infected person.
According to an online article on why WTD is important, about 4,5 billion people live without “safely managed sanitation” and this has a profound impact on public health, human dignity, and safety especially for women.
“When people have no toilets, they resort to open defecation. This leads to the spread of serious soil-transmitted diseases as well as waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea and schistosomiasis,” reads an extract from the document.
The sentiments ring true to the realities especially in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, where the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the city council have had to fight recurrent typhoid outbreaks over the years, especially in the oldest suburb of Mbare.
While many other causes have been cited as causing the deadly sickness, inadequate sanitation stands as one of the major triggers of diseases such as typhoid, cholera and diarrhoea among others.
The capital’s bus termini, alleys, fly overs and even pavements are littered with human waste and efforts by the city fathers appear to be falling short to stem the absurd behaviour.
Efforts to get comment from Harare City Council spokesperson Michael Chideme were fruitless as he had not responded to messages sent via WhatsApp upon his request on Thursday.
The city is chasing an ambitious goal to attain world-class status by 2025, but that will remain a dream if the toilets issue is not addressed.
However, environmentalist Kudakwashe Makanda said the environmental eyesore has become a huge hindrance to general activities in the central business district.
“These are biodegradable substances so they are likely to decompose and in decomposition that will lead to a lot of air pollution, which when happening in an urban set up, disturbs the ease of doing business,” said Makanda.
“Health-wise, it attracts bacteria and now in the rainy season there is a possibility that because of our poor drainage system the same defecated stuff will find ways into our drainage pipes, drinking wells and since we have a problem of water, people will be exposed to serious pollution.”
A significant number of citizens depend on boreholes for water and with contaminated runoff water destined to drip into them the resource underground is highly polluted.
Apart from the wells which areas not connected to the water systems depend on, a health disaster impends because even the local authority’s supply is apparently questionable owing to a recycling process which has seen dirty water making way to the taps.
Makanda called for policy formulation to ensure that sanitation is made available for small and even informal enterprises as they are adding to the crisis.
Illegal vendors, touts and other informal traders in the city centre are said to be at the centre of the disaster owing to the unavailability of enough ablution facilities while the few that are there are paid for.
Malls and other shops only allow usage of their toilets after the presentation of evidence, through receipts, that one has bought something in their shops.
Apart from the city centre, most sprouting urban areas have no drainage systems, leaving those with no money to construct blair toilets or to resort to bushes.
Zimbabwe Medical Students Association representative Masimba Ndoro said it was both morally wrong and a health time bomb, which needs an urgent positive response from housing authorities.
“Morally, it is just unacceptable on our upbringing and just being a human being it is not right for you to be defecating in open spaces,” said Ndoro.
“On a health perspective, poop and urine attracts disease causing bacteria so this is more of a hazard to both the ones defecating and others; it becomes hard to develop such areas as they are no longer conducive for profitable activity.”
National Railways of Zimbabwe workers in Marondera town last week said their work had become unbearable owing to human waste along railway lines and stations.
The town’s clerk Josiah Musuwo reportedly told a recent full council meeting that NRZ workers repairing the railway line were finding it difficult to do their work due to human excreta, which exposes them to health threats.
Environmental activist Denyse Bernard said there needs to be a social shift from the endemic horrid culture suggesting awareness of its negative impact as a take-off point.
“There are some people who generally no longer see the importance of toilets and opt to relieve themselves at any place as long they are not being seen so we need to undo that by preaching a new culture which reinforces the importance of these facilities in accordance with our dignified cultural beliefs and healthy behaviour consciousness,” Bernard said.
It remains a contentious issue whether or not local authorities will in the new future commit to making toilets a regular feature but the current dire feature is a major impediment on development.
