Believe it or not, your toilet is
doing a great job in saving your life. How do I know this? Well, I am going to
give you a short story.
During my secondary school days
(I attended a boarding school), whenever the toilet was bad and I needed to
empty my bowels, I practiced the shot put method. The shot put was a slang given
to open defecation in my school. Usually, I would go to a nearby bush with a
nylon with which I would defecate. Sometimes, I would meet my fellow shit
partners at the bush (so I wasn’t the only one doing it…lol). Whenever I‘m
done, I would throw the ‘stuff’ into the bush like am throwing a shot put
(that’s where the slang came from).
I have long realized that this
practice is bad and unsafe because not only was this shot put zone characterized
with foul odour and big flies, people living near this area could also be prone
to diseases such as cholera, typhoid etc.
When people defecate in the open, flies will feed on the excreta and can carry small amounts of the excreta away on their bodies and feet. When they touch food, the excreta and the germs in the excreta are passed onto the food, which may later be eaten by another person. Some germs can grow on food and in a few hours their numbers can increase very quickly. Where there are germs there is always a risk of disease. ~WHO
According to an article by The Economist, India is the country worst
blighted by open defecation but this doesn’t leave Nigeria out in the practice.
We see people all around us defecating in the open and it seems like a normal
thing (and we do not correct them***we all know its not normal***). Even though
some might argue that they are pressed and can’t find a nearby toilet, I must
say that DMT Mobile Toilet is doing a great job in creating mobile toilets
around Lagos but I believe the government needs to make environmental
sanitation a priority by creating public toilets in strategic locations in all
the states of the country. People should also be enlightened on toilet
etiquette.
I guess more lives will be saved
if every house (especially in the rural areas) owns a toilet. And not only own
a toilet, keep it clean also. Toilet should be a place where to get rid of
germs and not spread diseases.
Source: WHO, Dailymail, The Economist.
