By Hassan Ibrahim ContehÂ
Some enclosed weak structures, made up of sticks and empty bags of rice, are often erected as toilets in most parts of the slums in Freetown. Others are built with tattered tarpaulins or rustic zincs with some layer of sticks laid against each other to enable one to stand on to dispose of bowels on the seas.
This is made possible with a narrow hole created between some threaded sticks where faeces pass through to empty their way on the waters. Some people use ceramic toilets made of cement, which is connected with a pipe where human excreta squeeze through.
It is also very common to see children and young people defecating on the shores of Freetown’s wharfs. The waters, on some of these wharfs, are contaminated with piles of rubbish thrown by unscrupulous rubbish collectors into the Rokel River. This is mostly the rubbish gathered from some nearby market places like Dove Cot in the Central Business District (CBD) and Old Wharf in the east of Freetown.
And one of the places, that is seriously affected, is Moa Wharf community, which has a population of about one thousand inhabitants. Moa Wharf, like many other slums in Freetown, has, over the years, seen repeated neglect from successive governments. This community represents many other slum communities in Sierra Leone, which lack proper toilet facilities.
In the absence of pit latrines, in the slums, most people are forced to defecate on the top of rocks and under the boulders on the river banks. The situation has been exacerbated with growing number of people and the rapid construction of makeshift dwelling places on the river banks.
These bays are also used as dumping sites by residents who live in the wharf areas. Children could also be seen swimming in the dirty water that is woven with unwanted materials, which are washed over by heavy rains.
During the rainy season, the sewage, on the wharf areas, is overwhelmed with toxic substances thrown in the drainages from the CBD areas. Over the years, this has caused repeated floods, which have killed many people and left others homeless. Many health experts observe that cholera outbreaks are prevalent in environments, which are marked with improvised homes and unhygienic toilet facilities.
Sierra Leone had one of its deadliest cholera outbreaks in 2012. The endemic killed over three hundred people and infected more than 25,000 Sierra Leoneans. More than 19,000 cases were reported at the time by the country’s Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
Since the end of the 2012 cholera outbreak in Sierra Leone, successive governments have failed to address the issue of sewage disposal and poor toilet facilities. This is evidenced by the teeming rate of unsafe and unclean local flush toilets used by inhabitants in these slums.
Government has not given serious attention to addressing sanitation problems in Freetown’s slum areas, which have become mostly breeding grounds for mosquitos and a commonplace for waterborne diseases such as cholera, malaria and other deadly outbreaks.
Most of the activities, which have been implemented by the Bio-led administration, are considered by many citizens as lacking actionable results that would enable effective change. Sierra Leone has recently declared 34 communities, across four districts, as open defecation free (ODF). The declaration followed the celebration on World Toilet Day, which was based on the theme ’Sustainable Sanitation and Climate Change.’
A community is declared open defecation free when every household has a toilet for use as opposed to defecating in the bush. The four districts named as ODFs are Bonthe, Falaba, Port Loko and Koinadugu.
Every year, November 19 is celebrated as World Toilet Day
Since 2003, when United Nations Water recommended the observance of World Toilet Day, critical focus to mitigating sanitation crisis around the world has been intensified.
United Nations Water has revealed that sustainable sanitation is resilient to climate change and safely processes bodily waste. The findings further reveal that toilets, combined with clean water and good hygiene, form a strong defense against COVID-19 and future outbreak of diseases.
Since the day was declared, several campaigns have sprung up to heighten talks on raising awareness on sustainable sanitation systems using productive use of waste to boosting agriculture and trapping or reducing emissions for greener energy.
The campaign is gearing toward ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation as provided for by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6. About 4.2 billion people are living with access to safely managed sanitation with one, out of every three people, going without a toilet.
Environmental experts have proven that climate change is worsening as evidenced with global floods, mudslides and rising sea levels, which are threatening sanitation systems. They advise that toilets, septic tanks and treatment plants must ensure sustainable sanitation for everyone that could mitigate climate change thereby keeping communities healthy and functioning.
The fewer local flush toilets in communities like Moa Wharf, Susan’s Bay, Old Wharf and other slums in Freetown have the potential to cause innumerable number of deaths resulting from deadly diseases like cholera, malaria and many more.
In a country known for its dysfunctional health system and water resources, coupled with impoverished slums, any outbreak of diseases from these slums may have spillover effects on other countries around the world. Against this background, the United Nations is encouraging every individual to enjoy sustainable sanitation, alongside clean water and hand washing facilities in a bid to protect and maintain global health security and to stop the spread of deadly infectious diseases such as COVID-19, cholera and typhoid.
Oddly, enough, Sierra Leone records a staggeringly low number of toilets facilities across the country in spite of its smaller population as compared to other countries in Africa.
With a population of about 7 million people in Sierra Leone, toilets are out of reach to more than 18% of the populace, according to the 2017 WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP). Most of these people, the report says, revert to open defecation, whereas 33% are said to be using unimproved sanitation facilities, which results to health risks and other complications.
The JMP report graphically demonstrates a sordid picture on Sierra Leone’s sanitation status over the years. The report says 84%, in other words, four in five persons in Sierra Leone leave excreta exposed and untreated, a situation which threatens human and environmental health problems. This is owing to the illnesses resulting from suffocating stench and vulnerability of animals and other species that may infect diseases on people.
The report also states that children, two out of five schools, in Sierra Leone, do not have access to toilets facilities. The practice of open defecation is as high as 34% in the country’s southern region as compared to just 5% in the western region.
Several studies have also proven that poor sanitation often leads to childhood illnesses such as diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition, which sometimes result to lifelong development challenges. However, Sierra Leone has suffered donkey years of unsafe drinking water.
It is evident that Sierra Leoneans still cry over water crisis as scores of children usually spend endless hours fetching water in ‘open wells’ and on the streets with rubbers fastened on ‘cut pipes.’
Freetown is still grappling with shortage of pure water in a population of close to 2 million residents, meaning the country’s Guma Water Dam could no longer supply Freetown’s growing population.
If Sierra Leone is to prevent future epidemics and ready to achieve Goal 6, of the United Nations Sustainable Development, on clean water and sanitation, it needs to build more hygienic toilet facilities, strengthen the supply of clean water and raise awareness hand washing practice in different communities especially in the slums.