At the well-known Central Market in Azare, Katagum Local Government Area, Bauchi State, Auwalu Ali owns a Toilet Business Owner (TBO).
Ali is thrilled that Katagum is now officially Open Defecation Free (ODF) because to his enhanced toilet business.
To reach this milestone, Katagum joined Dass, Warji, Shira, Gamawa, Bogoro, Ganjuwa, and Toro LGAs.
The clean, odourless atmosphere of Ali’s public lavatory, which features showers and separate areas for men and women, is one thing that immediately attracts visitors.
A group of journalists from Katagum paid a visit to the facility on Thursday as part of the celebration of World Toilet Day (WTD), which is observed on November 19 and is intended to raise awareness of the significance of clean and safe restrooms.
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The journey towards accomplishing “SDG 6- Clean Water and Sanitation,” which is approximately seven years away from 2030—the worldwide target for the Sustainable Development Goal SDGs—is highlighted by this year’s WTD theme, “Accelerating Change.”
One of the five public restrooms built under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) by the Bauchi State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, RUWASSA, with assistance from UNICEF in Katagum, is Ali’s facility, named Sawaba.
He stated, “There are solar-powered boreholes available for users to receive water in the lavatory.”
“We run this facility until ten o’clock at night, and anyone who wants to use it can do so for free even if they don’t have any money.”This is a part of our effort to deter public defecation,” he stated.
Commissioner for Water Resources Nubu Zaki stated that toilet company owners were made aware of the need to increase latrine uptake through promotional initiatives.
“Households have a high demand for improved latrines; however, a bottleneck arises from insufficient household funds and TBOs,” he stated.
According to Zaki, TBOs received training and were connected to microfinance organisations so they could obtain capital for better toilet construction.
The agreement was implemented for company expansion by the TBOs under the PPP on a rotating basis.
The Commissioner noted that the state’s latrine uptake improved with the issue of revolving loans to TBOs Fast Tracked.
“Building and using better latrines promotes pride, dignity and the avoidance of diseases and water pollution,” he declared.
According to Ali, the concept was first met with less enthusiasm by TBOs and communities in Katagum.
“When the team first came to us with the idea of public restrooms to address open defecation, we didn’t understand it and we didn’t welcome the idea at first,” remembered Ali, a PPP trainee in the Katagum LGA.
But now that it has changed our life, we are happy we accepted it.
According to UNICEF, 48 million people in Nigeria still urinate outside, primarily in rural regions, which has a serious negative socioeconomic impact on the nation.
“We now understand that better restrooms have the power to change lives, and since awareness was raised, things have gotten better,” Ali stated.
People no longer openly defecate around Azare’s Central Market area since the lavatory was built in 2018 and my business opened in 2019. It used to be awful because after the market closed, people would frequently come to the area to urinate, leaving the entire area messy.
According to UNICEF, having better restrooms in households, public areas, schools, and healthcare institutions is essential to preventing open defecation.
Ali’s public lavatory is staffed by four people who make sure it is kept hygienic every day. It is open to the public as early as 7 am and closes at 10 pm.
“Our fees typically range from N50 to N100, contingent upon the nature of the services provided,” he said.
Because of the volume of people that frequent the local market, I make sure that the loo is clean.
In addition to increasing capacity, Ali stated that RUWASSA and its partners built solar boreholes in the restrooms to guarantee a consistent water supply for the establishment.
The main issue with Ali’s public restroom is that it is not accessible to those with physical disabilities.
It was also noted that there was just one entrance, which was used by both men and women to enter the building.
Some female users may feel uneasy using a single entrance with other users due to customs and norms.
The RUWASSA Acting General Manager promised that the issues would be resolved.
“How you see it today showed that the proprietor had been able to properly manage it, even though the toilet was constructed about five years ago,” he remarked.
“That is the reason why customers continue to come in, and we helped them with that.”
He said that a total of 194 TBOs from the state’s 20 LGAs had received training.
“In 2022, additional TBOs were identified and trained under the PPP; some of them are currently in business, while others have not started, possibly due to funding issues.”
He gave his word that consideration was being given to designing public restrooms that are easy to use, especially for women, girls, and people with impairments.
“Based on the design, it appears to be a versatile tool that can be utilised by a wide range of individuals,” he remarked.
“After the new model is validated, RUWASSA or other stakeholders who are interested in building restrooms in their local government areas (LGAs) will pilot it somewhere in the state.”
“After using the facility, we realised that inclusive lavatory construction was necessary, even though the PPP arrangement had not been considered at the outset.
“For this reason, we are creating new designs that will meet everyone’s needs.”
He gave his word that the state administration was working nonstop to make sure Bauchi reaches the 2030 SDG target.
Nearly ten of our LGAs are ODF.
“We are working diligently to ensure that all LGAs in Bauchi State transition to ODF status.”
The head of RUWASSA stated that the organisation was making every effort to guarantee that communities received a consistent supply of water.
Seventy percent of our communities, especially the LGAs that received UNICEF funding to dig hand pump boreholes, have access to safe drinking water.
“We are presently collaborating with the African Development Bank (ADP) project to gain access to approximately eight LGAs that are currently without it.”
Offixer-in-Charge of the U ICED Bauchi Field Office, Dr. Clement Adams, also informed journalists about the public restrooms at Central Market Azare when they were on the facilities tour.
He stated, “This is one of the ways UNICEF supports the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
“Economically incentivizing sanitation through the method of toilet company owners leads us to our aim of being open defecation free, while also creating jobs and improving income generation.
The facility is a Private Public Partnership, therefore you need to diversify your approach rather than relying solely on one.
The majority of these restrooms are private and typically well-kept, as you will notice.
Another method to guarantee that restrooms are accessible to everybody is through PPP. While there is no harm in going the individual route, we also encourage people to choose this alternative path.Take what you can from it.
