We need to break this taboo!
Very likely those who need to know about it most have no idea that tomorrow is a day the United Nations has set aside to highlight an issue of deep concern to them. Bluntly put, minus euphemisms, tomorrow, November 19, is World Toilet Day.
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nThe 2016 theme is ‘Toilets and jobs’, explained as “focusing on how sanitation, or the lack of it, can impact people’s livelihoods.
In Ghana as in many other countries, talking about toilets is almost a taboo, the word or the function to be mentioned only when supported with an apologetic sϵbe or taflatse, but that belief surely dates back to the days when communities were smaller and people were better behaved.
Furthermore, all being well, tomorrow a ceremony will take place in Accra that should have an impact on the lives of the thousands of people in the Accra Metropolitan Area who don’t have toilets in their homes. I’m referring to the advertised awards ceremony for the winner(s) of a contest for the most innovative, low-budget toilet design.
The newspaper advertisement sought from entrants the design of the most “affordable innovative toilet” for use in low-income communities. The deadline for entries was November 7, 2016.
The advertisement was placed by the Sanitation and Water Project of the Ghana Government, Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and the World Bank. Presumably, the winning design will be recommended to other local authorities.
However, much as I applaud the contest idea, if the advertisement with a November 7 deadline, was the only publicity for it, my fear is that probably not many of those who should have competed, would have seen the advertisement.
And was the implementation too hasty? It appears so, judging by the short duration of the announcement of this extremely important initiative and the deadline. Also, there was no mention of the prizes in the advertisement. Knowing the prizes might perhaps have served as a strong inducement, especially spreading the news by word of mouth.
Nevertheless, it was very encouraging to see the announcement of the contest. The subject of toilets is very dear to my heart and one which this column has focused on a number of times, including the following abridged 2013 article:
“On July 24 (2013), in response to a resolution by Singapore, the United Nations agreed to observe a ‘World Toilet Day’ every November 19. Although civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations have been observing World Toilet Day, it has not been one of the UN’s commemorative days.
“It is instructive that Singapore’s envoy, Mark Neo, is reported to have stated that he didn’t care if their ‘Sanitation for All’ resolution made people laugh because World Toilet Day highlights “a serious problem: 2.5 billion people worldwide don’t have access to proper sanitation.”
“Here in Ghana, according to the NGO Water Aid Ghana, as at the end of 2011, there was only 15 per cent sanitation coverage.
“World Bank sanitation statistics Quoted by the Ghana Business News show that, alarmingly, Ghana’s economy loses GH¢420 million each year due to poor sanitation; and 19,000 Ghanaians die prematurely
“from diarrhoea, including 5,100 children under the age of five, nearly 90 per cent of which is directly attributable to poor water, sanitation and hygiene.”
“Strangely, the traditional squeamishness apparently sees nothing wrong with people queuing up to use public toilets; or that people find alternative, anti-social ways to dispose of their waste. Yet, this is a country that prides itself on being a pace-setter.
“It is hard to understand why anybody can build a facility for human use and not include a toilet – obviously based on the crude view that the tenants or occupants should use a public toilet ….
“But then this is also a country where in some places even schools are built without toilets and apparently nobody in those communities sees anything wrong with that, although that impacts directly on
school attendance, especially for girls.
“Studies have shown that in schools without washrooms, every month some girls stay away from classes for four or even five days when they’re in their period because if they go to school there will be nowhere for them to change or clean themselves.
“Another issue equally worthy of attention is the toilet situation at public venues and lorry stations or transport terminuses. It is unbelievable that in 2013 there are very few such places Ghana that have decent facilities that patrons feel comfortable using.
“More disturbing still, nobody seems to care!
“The question is, whose responsibility is it to see to it that all public places not only have toilets, but clean ones?
“Given the gravity of the sanitation shortcomings, it is a wonder that this country has not seen fit to declare a ‘Ghana Toilet Day’.
“Equally importantly, one hopes that the Government will announce concrete plans towards making the ‘unmentionable’ a mandatory item on every District or Metropolitan Assembly’s list of priorities. The aim should surely be to compel every house to have at least one toilet and every public venue and transport terminus to have decent toilets for patrons – which should be regularly inspected.
“And maybe the first action should be the formation of a governmental Toilets Task Force, involving all the stakeholders, to develop sustainable, binding strategies to begin solving with urgency this national disgrace,” the article concluded. Column of September 28, 2013, Time to mention the ‘unmentionable’!
What a wonderful national achievement it would have been if the dire situation described in 2013 had become ‘past tense’ in 2016! Unfortunately, we all know the reality.
I have not read any of the manifestos of the political parties contesting in Election 2016, but I wonder if tackling the country’s appalling toilet situation features in any of them.
If the UN can underscore the importance of the issue by declaring a World Toilet Day, I see no reason why Ghana can’t set up a special task force to tackle the problem and even declare, a ‘Ghana Toilet Day’.
There is need not only to talk openly about toilets, but also to take pragmatic, urgent action. The time to break the taboo is long overdue and, hopefully, the imaginative toilet design contest might be the springboard for action so desperately needed.