An effective public toilet system - a myth or a reality in Ghana? Part 1

Ghana public toilets continue to cause embarrassment to our country. Our facilities around all main transport stations are unacceptable in any developed world. . We need proper toilet facilities at all tro tro stations, the Neo plan Stations or the State transport Stations. Why are our various Governments not addressing this head on since PM Busia? Don't they see this as a priority?

Does Ghana wants to be classified as a third world country for ever? Come on! Ghana must stand up to this political hot potato. Our former Prime Minister, Dr Brefa Busia was started a project of a proper sewerage system at Accra Metropolitan Area (A.M.A)in the 1970's. This idea was promptly abandoned when the OAU asked Ghana to break diplomatic relations with Israel. All the Israeli engineers doing a marvellous job in Accra were sent packing. Meanwhile, Egypt that first asked for the diplomatic disruption, went ahead and restored diplomatic relations with
Israel. Ghana refused, Busia having sadly then been overthrown was by then unable to recalled them to complete the job.

Even though a report ( The Accra Sewerage Improvement Project) was delivered in 1996 recommending improvement to the networks due to the increasing level of diffuse pollution from septic system , 10 years later it is still just a plan. If we needed it in the 1970's; how much more now? Hence leaving this topical area of grave concern unfinished up till now is criminal. Just as we are blind to the sewers, so also to the need for public toilets.

The whole system is a disaster. Yet we are hosting Ghana @50 and promoting the tourist industry.

Ghana must learn from these hard lessons and move on with the current trends, not expect the tourists or guests to come to Ghana and enjoy such filth. When it comes to sanitation issues it makes Ghanaians rather uncomfortable as it means we have a lot of explaining to do to justify why there is “the neglect.” Ghanaians must feel free to introduce people around their country just the same way one feels when one introduces guests into ones' home.
The A.M.A must have a daily routine cleaning mechanisms in place and not an adhoc one as we currently do. However, do not think that solving the sanitation problem is going to be easy…

Malaysia is often set as an example to us of what we should have achieved in the last 50 years. But they also are embarrassed about its public toilet systems. A publication in News Track - Quirks, Feb. 9, 2007 at 11:33 AM highlights this “Toilets in Malaysia an embarrassment “

The Malaysia Government however, is dealing with the issue head on by planning to introduce college courses in lavatory management in an effort to improve the awful state of the country's toilets. The courses are part of a continuing "toilet revolution" in the Southeast Asian nation known for its pristine tropical beaches and modern skyscrapers, But unfortunately, public toilets in Malaysia are a turn-off for overseas tourists who find them dirty and disgusting. They also lack toilet paper and soap for washing hands. To improve the condition of its loos, Malaysia is instituting a text message hotline so substandard lavatories can be reported to authorities.

"Good, clean toilets are associated with good health, good manners, good upbringing, good housekeeping and civilisation," says Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak. "That is why the government feels this must be a national effort.

Let us briefly look at the history of sanitation.

Research shows that, the idea of public toilets dates back thousands of years.

The Romans developed public health, as they believed that cleanliness would lead to good health. The Romans made links between causes of disease and methods of prevention. As a consequence they developed a large system of Public Health works around their empire.
The Romans believed that Prevention of illness was more important than cure of illness. Roman Philosophy was based along the lines of searching for a reason then establishing a preventative measure to minimise the risk attached.

Such empirical observations led the Romans to believe that ill health could be associated with, amongst other things, bad air, bad water, swamps, sewage, debris and lack of personal cleanliness. In some places, Rome included; it is impossible to avoid all of these unless something is physically done to alter the environment.

The Romans, being technologically adequate, resolved to provide clean water through aqueducts, to remove the bulk of sewage through the building of sewers and to develop a system of public toilets throughout their towns and city's. Personal hygiene was encouraged through the building of large public baths (The roman baths in the City of Bath being an obvious example of these).

The consequence of this pragmatic approach to preventative measures was an advanced system of public health structures, many of which are still visible in places today. In Some Roman ruins toilets can still be seen today – these consisted of rows of holes in planks or stone which people could sit on, with a direct drop into running water below to remove the effluent. This level of hygiene was not seen again until the late 19th century!

No advances appeared until the 19th Century, in fact hygiene had mainly gone backwards.

However, large conurbations produce such large volumes of effluent that thinking needs to go beyond just providing a basic open sewer. The 'great stinks' showed this in London and Paris, but similar problems exist in many cities today.

Research shows that Britian in the 19th century had a major problem with sewerage resulting in the great stink in London. In 1858, the river or the 'Great Stink' as it was often called was so bad that the sittings at the House of Commons had to be abandoned. It transpires that by the middle of 19th Century, the rise in sewage carried into the Thames had killed off all the fish and most other aquatic life.

Prof, Martin Daunton's article on The London's great stink and Victorian urban planning reported that cholera epidemics, the 'Great Stink' and miasmas (foul smelling air) combined to create a death rate in Britain's cities higher than at any time since the Black Death. The Government was forced to face up to the need for an urban planning policy focusing on sanitation.

It is said that the work connected with laundries surpassed prostitution in Victorian London and all this waste and toxic water passed into the river. In mid-19th century London, out of the 70,000 houses in the city, 17,000 had their own wells, while the rest relied on standpipes- one for every 20 to 30 houses- which supplied water for one hour only, three days a week. Few houses had bathrooms and even when Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace, she found no bathrooms.

Indeed, as late as 1908, Downing Street had no bathrooms. Public bathhouses were popular. A series of cholera outbreaks in the 1840s and 1850s paved the way for a system of sewers built with the main outfall at Becton and Crossness, downstream of London and leading to a dramatic drop in death rates (from 130 down to 37 per 1000).

According to research, Paris in the Summer of 1880, was also in the grip of a "Great Stink". Reports of foul, stomach turning odours were all over in the newspapers on a daily basis, and public fear and outrage grew as the stink engulfed the city.
So we see that sanitation only gets attention when it gets out of hand. Unfortunately, as soon as improvements are made, concern drops and political expediency leads to cuts – as Busia's program did. Ghana is not alone as many developed countries also went through difficult periods on the subject of sewerage and public health. An article written by Sally Sheard – (Profit is a Dirty Word: The Development of Public Baths and Wash-houses in Britain 1847–1915), demonstrated how the introduction of public baths and washhouses in Liverpool, Belfast, and Glasgow was initially a direct response to sanitary reform campaigns. She further reported that the explicit public health ideology of these developments was constantly compromised by implicit concerns about municipal finance and the potential profit that such enterprises could generate.

You would think the British would have learnt from the 'Great Stink'. But, by the 1950's, due to lack of investment, increased industrial discharges, bomb damage to sewers during the Second World War and widespread use of non-biodegradable detergents had produced a River that was virtually dead. Water quality was so poor that during summer months large stretches of the River were devoid of any oxygen with the result that there was no established population of fish between Fulham and Tilbury. Following a report prepared for the Thames Survey Committee in 1961 by the Pollution Research Board, improvements were started which gradually improved water quality so that fish were able to recolonise the river.

So we see that Britain has also struggled with dealing with sewage. And unfortunately, the more houses with better sanitation, the more sewage you get!

It may surprise people to know that a bath and indoor toilet have only recently become standard in Britain. Research shows that in the early 1970's, much of the housing provision in Northern Ireland was inadequate. In 1971, only 63 percent of Catholic homes and 72 percent of Protestant homes in Northern Ireland had hot water, a fixed bath or shower, and an inside WC. This gap has however only been eradicated over the past 25 years, with almost all homes in Northern Ireland (98 percent), being furnished with these facilities.

So we must realise that sanitation and Public health in Ghana will not be solved easily, it is an ongoing project. It is about time everyone takes the initiative to make a difference. If locals take initiatives and start up projects of this nature other organisation would assist.

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