Build Public Toilets Before Banning Open Defecation, Residents Tell Soludo

Residents of Awka, capital of Anambra State, want Gov Chukwuma Soludo to make public toilet facilities available in all nooks and crannies of the state before banning open defecation.

This followed Monday’s ban on open defecation by Ocha Brigade, which is the state’s agency in charge of monitoring and enforcement of the state sanitation laws.

The agency had in a press release banned throwing wastes out of moving vehicles as well as open defecation. The agency, in the statement signed by its public relations officer, Mr Agbafine Anthony, on behalf of the Managing Director of the agency, Comrade Celestine Anere, warned that defaulters ‘will henceforth be arrested and prosecuted’.

The statement read in part, “Our men have also been directed to visit every premises in the state daily to book any defaulter. We have also set up a special monitoring team with a responsibility of going around all the premises to fish out defaulters.”

A civil rights activist, Nze Chijioke Okolo, said, “The idea is good, but this administration should know that we are not in a utopian society where everything is ideal. There should be provisions for public toilet facilities before such order could be implemented. I advise our governor to review the policy because it’s not going to fly.”

A trader, Chioma Okoye, told Gov Soludo to build public toilets in markets and other public places. She said, “I doubt if this policy will work out. I am a trader, and we don’t have public toilet facilities in our market. How will we cope? And we pay taxes and levies. Let the state government use a part of the monies we pay to provide those facilities. I may even say that the governor isn’t aware of this development.”

James Okwosa is an architect. According to him, “It is a step in a right direction because we must start from somewhere. We expect local government areas to key into the scheme and build those facilities for revenue generation. Also, private developers should buy into the scheme. But arresting and prosecuting defaulters without providing them the alternatives is a call for anarchy.”