Flying toilets: Common practice that triggers polio, cholera, meningitis in Nigeria

Many people don't have access to good
sanitary facilities

It is now a common thing to see human excreta popularly referred to as "flying toilet" or "shot put" inside polythene bags and deposited on major roads and highways in many parts of the country. Seye Adeniyi chronicles the cause of the unhealthy habit and concludes that it is a major factor for some diseases.

THERE are some unwholesome habits and practices which many people are used to in this part of the world and which have made developed nations of the world to believe that such practices are part of our culture.

However, there is need to educate ourselves on the need to stop some of these unhealthy practices which many doctors and public health experts have identified as causes of ill health.

One of such bad, unhealthy practices is urinating by the road side, inside flowing streams or rivers which serve as sources of drinking water for many people.

Also the habit of defecating inside paper or polythene materials (nylon bags) and after doing that, throwing such human faeces on major roads, highways and even inside rivers, flowing streams, etc. is another bad and common practice in many parts of the country.

This unwholesome practices are common in villages and major cities where there is lack of sanitary facilities for people to use. It is indeed disturbing and embarrassing to discover that many of our major roads and highways are being taken over by refuse as well as human faeces which are often wrapped in polythene bags or paper and placed in the middle or the side of major roads and highways.

In fact, if you are not careful enough, you would have stepped on such"packaged human faeces or execreta" before knowing it. Not only that, many road users, especially vehicle owners and commercial drivers, often get their tyres as well as the body of their vehicles stained or splashed with this, “packaged human faeces” whenever they drive on major roads and highways.

However, a professor of environmental and public health at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, MKC Sridhar, has raised serious alarm on this unwholesome, unhygienic practices which many people have now become addicted to but which he said can cause serious environmental pollution as well as trigger certain disease like gastroenteritis or gastro-intestinal tract (GIT) infections, typhoid fever, polio myelitis, worm infestations of the abdomen, cholera, dysentery, as well as other communicable diseases.

“Flying toilets” or “shot-put”, as human faeces packed inside polythene bag or paper is commonly referred to, thrown anywhere carelessly or on our roads, according to the don, how many health implications, or problems embedded in it.

For instance, flies that perch on such excreta can as well transfer disease causing germs on food items being displayed by food stuff sellers by the road side. This can cause serious health problems in humans who consume such foods.

Also, this is rainy season and if rain should fall on such “flying toilet” or “shot-put”, the water oozing from such, called sullage, can find its way into major streams or rivers and cause serious health problems for anybody who drinks such contaminated water.

Those who are also in the habit of going to major roads to scoop water from broken water pipes are also exposed to diseases like typhoid fever, cholera, diarrhoea, cerebral meningitis, dysentery, abdominal diseases after drinking such contiminated water.

Furthermore, it is no longer a new thing in the country today to see many young school children queing-up and scooping water either from broken or leaking water pipes as well as from stagnant water bodies on major roads or highways.

Some even go to the extent of fetching dirty water from drainages and gutters, an action Prof Sridahr said has been precipitated by lack of potable water in many parts of the country. Children, especially those under five years of age, it was further reported are the most vulnerable groups.

Prof. Sridhar also condemned the habit of people urinating inside rivers or streams, adding that such water in many cases usually serve as a source for domestic use and drinking for people in other villages or parts of the city.

“Flying toilet” or “shot put” also distorts the aesthetic value of any city. Any refuse or garbage packed inside polythene materials will not degrade on time because polythene bags are non-biodegradable materials and as such, human excreta packed inside polythene bags may continue to render havoc on human health as it continues to produce contaminated water gradually.

Animals can also contract diseases by feeding on “flying toilet”. Many people do keep dogs, cats and sheep as pets, so when such animals feed on the “shot put”, they could transmit such diseases to the owners and cause ill health in the animal as well.

On the way out of this public health nuisance, the environmental expert appealed to the government to enforce many of our docile environmental laws in order to make people live in healthy environments” and observe hygiene rules which are necessary for good health and longevity.

Many canteen owners, often fetch water from stagnant water bodies or slow moving streams that have been contaminated or polluted with human faeces/excreta to prepare foods which they sell to their customers.

Not only that, there are also several reported cases of cholera, cerebrospinal meningitis, measles and polio outbreaks in different parts of the country in recent times and many public health experts at different fora have called on government to provide the citizens with good, potable, drinking water in order to reduce the prevalence of all these diseases because most times, children under five years are the most affected.

Inaccessibility to drinking water has also been said to be contributing a lot to the high rate of child morbidity and mortality in the country, a situation that is giving the country a bad image the comity of nations.

Another dangerous disease that human beings can also get from "flying toilets" or "shot put" is Lassa fever. If rats should feed on human faeces and later walk or feed on human foods like cassava, fufu, lafun, as well as other grains like cocoa seeds, maize, cowpea, etc which farmers usually spread by the roadside for sun-drying, such contaminated or polluted foods can also be an expressway to lassava fever which is a viral and deadly or dangerous disease.