Abiodun Taiwo, Abeokuta
Ijemo, Itesi, Ilugun, Wasinmi, are ancient settlements of the Egbas of Abeokuta South local government area of Ogun State.
The towns that have more than fifty thousand residents, are located in the rocky areas of the state capital.
The challenges facing these people are numerous, apart from having problem to access clean drinkable water, many of their houses are built on rocks while the dead also suffer same fate as they are sometimes buried on the ' earth surface'.
Apart from the Egba towns mentioned above, other areas in Abeokuta that suffers same fate are people living in Itoko, some parts of Ake, Ilogbo, and many more like that.
The towns formed larger settlements in Abeokuta south and north local government areas of Ogun State.
To dig deep well, or bore hole, resident have to go through hell and pay through their noses before they can asses a clean drinkable water.
Apart from having assess to drinkable water, the federal government policy of achieving open defecation free by 2025 may be a mirage for these people who are more than half of the entire populace in the ancient Abeokuta city.
When our correspondent visited the areas, not less than Eight public primary schools and two post primary schools in the area were built on the rocks, with none having assess to good hygiene as they were seen defecating openly in the bushes and surrounding areas of the schools.
It was also observed that though many of them tried to construct modern toilets, but, they could not be able to dig deep, and they have to result to the construction of make up shift where the staff defecates into a container and then throw the feaces into the bush.
Apart from schools, many of the houses in the areas also practise open defecations as they have no way of ' doing it'.
Speaking to our correspondent, a resident of the area simply known as Bashir, said the practise is an age long one. He revealed that since he was born about forty years ago that have been the practise he met his parents and other residents of the area doing since according to him, there is no way they can dig a pit in the area.
He said the government tried to discourage them from the practise, but whenever they are pressed, they had to run into the bush and defecate.
Though the federal government resolution of achieving open defecation free by year 2025 seems to be of highest concern to the health officials in Abeokuta south local government, but it seems that their hands are tied.
According to a very senior official of the health department of Abeokuta South local government the challenges is enormous based on the locations of the towns.
The health official who did not want his name mentioned said those "people are living in a rocky terrain, where we have rocks of different types where their lands consists of big stones and this made it so difficult for them to construct pit latrines".
"But that does not mean we cannot achieve open defecations free in those areas. I want to point it to you that where we are talking about sanitation, it has to do with your level of prosperity, your level of financial capability and your level of exposure.
"I want to say if you have money or buoyant, though the term buoyancy is relative, if you have money, you will not like to live in abject poverty., your conditions of living will even be seen in your physical appearance, so what we are saying about the level of prosperity of our people, and at the same time, their exposure, this consists of knowledge, if they know what to be done at a certain period, and also those places you visited are the core old places in Abeokuta".
"Many people have moved from that area, to new sites , so we have the real indigents and the aged people residing there and which I can say might not be able to provide this sanitary amenities we are talking about".
Giving suggestions on way to face the challenge, he said "we can embark on construction of VIP latrines, or ventilated improved latrines, which if we can't sink onto the ground, it can be constructed on the surface of the ground".
"We equally use water closet at available spaces where we can dig and then link it with a central sewage and where about ten houses can lay their pipes to link the septic tank.
" But that one may not be easily achievable, because of the enormous construction. That is why I said getting better sanitation for our people requires money which those people may not be relatively be able to have".
Speaking on government interventions, he revealed, "I know those terrains, we are putting more efforts to ensure that our people does not defecate indiscriminately, but you know, even when we prevent them during the day, in the night, they will still go and do it".
"I want to tell you that apart from their terrains, some have the belief that this is their age long practise, the attitudinal change".
" Of recent, we met with Ijemo high chiefs, they came here, and we were charting a way of curbing that menace in their domains, we believe that if we come together, they police themselves, we can be able to achieve open defecation free.
"In other areas like Itoko, Itesi, the same thing is happening there, those are the core old Abeokuta townships where people have moved out to new urban and new sites.".
"What we are trying to do is if we have new NGOs, the way they spend on the child killers diseases, the way they spend on HIV virus, and provide free medicines, if they can come to the aid of we environmentalists, we can achieved a lot, let them come, let them partner with us, let us together build comfort stations, which comprises of bathroom, toilet facility and where they can even store refuse before we haulage it to final dumpsite".
"So if they come we can achieve that and do it for our people and they will enjoy it and they should not forget the wise saying that prevention is better and cheaper than cure because they are spending lots on curative, because if you prevent those illness the cost of prevention will be drastically reduced than curation".
The provision of comfort stations can solve open defecation in those areas. We will commence that process, from the area of attitudinal change, we will first educate people, and to now address the issue of poverty, when we provide it for them, they will have it at hand, if they have it within their immediate environment, they will make use of it. We will monitor them, and we will maintain those facilities as well and we can really reduce it.
To buttress my points, the federal government has declared a state of emergency on open defecation in Nigeria, it is only that they are yet to come out with the way and processes they are going to follow with the declaration.
We can also allow Private public partnership, it is practicable, we even have it in some of our markets in the State, where the market people will go to the markets sink their toilets facilities, sink their boreholes, maintain it, and pay some amount as agreed on to the purse of the government, later on they can fully release the facility to the government according to contractual agreement. It is practicable and we can achieve it.
For those that have been in developed countries, we have all these in some stipulated kilometers on the highways. You can pack, stay, relax and tidy up yourself. We can do similar things here".
0 Comments