New lease of life for Lagosians - As govt makes available toilets and bathrooms for public use

Mr. Babatunde Fashola,
Lagos State governorA new wind is blowing in the State of Excellence, Lagos State. Aside from other state-of-the-art facilities being put in place by the current administration, Friday Ekeoba writes on the public toilets and bathrooms that are now being placed at strategic locations in the state.

Succour may have finally come the way of residents of Lagos State, who in one way or the other have been finding it difficult to answer the call of nature whenever they are out of their various homes. The good news now is that the state government, apparently aware that lack of facilities for residents to ease themselves is one factor that is contributing to the uncleanliness and filthiness of the state, has started placing mobile public toilets and bathrooms at strategic places to make it easier for Lagosians to ease themselves.

Until now, gross filthiness, brought about by the dumping of faeces and wastes was the problem the people of Oshodi, Ikeja, Ajegunle, Obalende and many other parts of the state had had to contend with. The stench resulting from the faeces dump sites across the state had been causing untold health hazard to residents on a daily basis. However, with the introduction of the mobile toilets and bathrooms, which have been placed at strategic places, especially in market places, smiles are now returning to the faces of Lagosians, who see this development as being timely.

A supervisor in one of the construction companies along the Oshodi-Apapa-Wharf road, (names withheld) recently narrated his ordeal to Lagos Life the day he was running stool. According to him, “I was coming from a meeting in Ikoyi, and I suddenly became pressed, but for the mobile toilets under the CMS Bridge , I wonder what would have happened to me that day,” he said. Also speaking in the same vein, a married woman shared her experience on her way to the market one Saturday morning. She said she suddenly developed stomach upset and before she could get somewhere to ease herself, she ended up messing her underwear and skirt.

According to her, she later located a mobile toilet and bathroom, where she cleaned up her underwear and had a shower. Leading the battle against unhygienic environment, in collaboration with the state government is a company called Metamorphosis. The company has helped in the construction and provision of modern toilet facilities; fully-equipped with bathrooms and other facilities for conveniences. Metamorphosis has also moved to address the environmental challenges confronting Obalende/Ijeh Community on Lagos Island .

The community, no doubt, is overpopulated and could easily be described as an urban slum. Obalende, being a busy commercial and transport centre, has people moving in and out of the area in their millions and definitely, in the past, lack or inadequate toilet facilities was a nightmare to people of the area. People, in a bid to ease themselves, urinated and defecated openly, without minding who was watching or if it was legal or illegal. People put their faeces in polythene bags and either threw them into the Macgregor canal or simply dumped them by the roadside, creating health hazards for the local government to deal with. The apt intervention of the Lagos State government in collaboration with Metamorphosis has since brought life back to the Obalende Community and its adjoining environs.

Speaking with Lagos Life, Chief Noel Gbadamosi, who has a thriving restaurant business at Obalende, said what Metamorphosis had succeeded in achieving in the community should be replicated in other parts of the state if total sanitation must be achieved. Chief Gbadamosi said prior to the provision of these needed services in the area, Obalende was synonymous with dirts and faeces. He noted that at motor parks and under the bridge which houses displaced people of all tribes, faeces were usually seen in polythene bags everywhere in the area. Another resident, Mr. Linus Obi, said that before such projects could become a success in other communities, residents of such areas must be allowed to identify their problems and how they intend to go about them.

“It is only through this that the solutions provided can last,” Mr. Obi stated. Speaking further, he said government partnership with the private sector and the benefiting communities is often a viable and effective strategy in addressing human development issues. While all these public utilities are being put in place, it is expected that lack of maintenance, which has been the bane of the country’s infrastructure, must be looked into, so as not to erode the gains achieved in the provision of the public facilities.