The article below was published in November 2021 in the Zambia Daily Mail Newspaper to commemorate the World Toilet Day. It was relevant then and it is relevant now.
On 9th November students from the University of Zambia protested to bring to the attention of government the various challenges the school is facing one of which is the lack of proper sanitation as shown in a video where their Students Union President Gabriel Banda claimed that East Park Mall toilets have been their salvation. 2 days later, on 11th November 2021, students from the Lusaka Business Technical College (LBTC) staged a protest alleging poor sanitation at the institution.
If situations can be this dire at higher learning institutions, how
about the rural areas?
The Toilet Crisis
According to JMP (2021), only 3.2 in 10 Zambians have access to improved
sanitation facilities which are not shared with other households. 1.1 in 10
Zambian disposes human faeces in open spaces as they lack any form of toilet. The
true picture is that 1.94 million of rural Zambians have no toilet facility, as
compared with 128,694 of urban. While toilet access is generally higher in
urban areas as compared to rural, sanitary conditions in urban areas are
aggravated by high-density living, inadequate septage and solid waste
management, and poor drainage.
Poor sanitation undermines human
dignity. Access to safe, hygienic, and private
sanitation facilities is one of the strongest indicators of dignity. For many
women across the country however, inadequate access is a source of shame,
physical discomfort, and insecurity. Cultural norms strictly control behaviour
in this area, in many cases requiring that women are not seen defecating – a requirement
that forces them to leave home before dawn or after nightfall to maintain
privacy. Delaying bodily functions is a major cause of liver infection and
acute constipation. The loss of dignity associated with a lack of privacy in
toilets helps to explain why women attach more importance than men to sanitary
provision (UNDP 2006).
Poor sanitation hurt girls’ education. Young girls, particularly
after puberty, are also less likely to attend classes if the school does not
have proper toilets. UNICEF estimate that about half the girls in Sub – Saharan
Africa who drop out of primary school do so because of poor water and
sanitation facilities. That helps explain why improving school sanitation can
increase the demand for education among girls. Conversely, inadequate provision
can retard progress. Toilets at home, school and at work help women
fulfil their potential and play their full role in society, especially during
menstruation and pregnancy.
Poor sanitation causes child mortality. Of the 123,355 annual deaths
in Zambia, 31,500 (26%) are children under the age of five (GBDx). Of these fatalities,
3,754 children won't survive to their 5th birthday because of
diarrhea. These sickness episodes represent the second largest cause of
childhood death after acute respiratory tract infection. Globally, diarrhoea
kills more people than tuberculosis or malaria – five times as many children
die of diarrhoea as of HIV/AIDS. Most deaths from diarrhoea are caused by
shigella, or bloody diarrhoea. Unlike other forms of diarrhoea, shigella cannot
be treated effectively with simple oral rehydration therapies – it requires
more costly antibiotics. Even for households that can afford treatment,
shigella is a growing threat because it has rapidly developed resistance to
antibiotics. The economic impact of poor WASH is also
staggering as health is wealth. Despite all this background, less than 1.4% of
2022 Zambia's national budget will go towards Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.
Poor sanitation and undernutrition reinforce each other. When
children are undernourished, their resistance to infection is lowered and they
are more susceptible to diarrhetic disease and other infections. Where children
regularly suffer from diarrhoea, they are also very likely to be malnourished
as a result. For infants, particularly those under six months of age, diarrhoea
can cause permanent damage to intestinal development, reducing a child's
ability to absorb nutrients leading to stunting, both physical and cognitive. And
children who are affected by stunting in their early years have lower test
scores on cognitive assessments and activity level (Alderman, Hoddinott and
Kinsey, 2006). Ultimately, adults who were stunted as children on average earn 22%
less than those who weren’t (Anthony Lake, 2012).
Working with line ministries to contribute to stunting reduction in the Zambia,
Scaling Up Nutrition Technical Assistance (SUN TA) is a project supported by
USAID being implemented in 13 selected districts of Central, Copperbelt,
Luapula, and Northern Provinces. To achieve this goal, SUN TA targets women of
reproductive age with at least one child under 2 years of age, and/or a
pregnant woman. The project’s sanitation demand creation and sustainable social
behaviours change is promoted through Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)
efforts. Given that recent evidence suggesting that poor sanitation is
particularly threatening to early life health, efforts to improve sanitary
conditions is therefore of urgent relevance.
2021 World Toilet Day
World Toilet Day - a day set worldwide to raise the awareness and
inspire action to intensify the construction and use of toilets – falls on 19th
November every year. This year’s theme ‘Valuing Toilets” draws attention to the
fact that toilets - and the sanitation systems that fund them – are often
underfunded, poorly managed, or neglected. This has devastating consequences
for health, economics, and the environment, particularly in our poorest and
most marginalized communities. The use of toilets is a topic that is usually ignored
and shrouded in taboos evidenced by the outrage UNICEF faced in 2018 for
supporting the erecting of billboards proclaiming the eradication of open defecation
in selected districts. It will take us to rightly focus such disgust and
outrage at the man in the mirror for allowing our fellow Zambians to have the
indignity of not having a toilet.
This World Toilet Day show us support that you care about
toilets by joining the #WorldToiletDay conversation on all social media
platforms.
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