Construction of respectful toilets in schools and educational establishments: An emergency

In schools and school establishments, traditional toilets should be banned to preserve the hygiene and health of children.

Regardless of social class, to which we belong, you can't avoid making a detour to the toilets. For several people living in good conditions, this ritual can be one of the most pleasant. Some take a book to read, others spend this time to reflect and finalize the program of their day or just meditate while relieving themselves.

More, for many students, go to the toilet, it is to accept to live a moment of hell. In the best case, it involves breathing in a stench and dealing with flies and mosquitoes. The situation becomes frankly unlivable when the hole that serves as a toilet is filled with excrement and sometimes water. Sometimes even the latter paint the surroundings, where the visitor is supposed to set foot. Not only the visual aspect is most unbearable, maggots wander everywhere and it is not uncommon for water laden with excrement to splash on the person who relieves himself in it.

Very few Beninese have never gone there to relieve themselves. For those who have never used them, these toilets consist of a hole dug in the ground and covered by a slab. In Cotonou, the bottom and the walls are made of cement bricks but even with this precaution, sometimes the slab collapses, sending the unlucky one in there to bathe in feces.

Beyond these inconveniences experienced by learners, traditional toilets are a threat to public health. It is no exaggeration to say that most of these places of transmission of knowledge only have this kind of infrastructure.. “When we talk about hygiene by default, it's a lot of human and financial resources. The subsidies granted to the administrations of these educational establishments often do not make it possible to recruit a structure having all the dismemberments of control and materials to take care of the maintenance.. It is often the schoolchildren/pupils themselves who take care of the maintenance of certain places with their own means”, wrote Rony K.. on the Ortb Facebook page. Gabriel Adamhou, abounds in the same direction by indicating that the current situation is a major concern which "challenges more than one to the adoption of behavior and hygienic practices". Charline Agossou proposes that the State recruit "agents trained in this field to ensure the hygiene of schools and thus help the younger generations to have a sense of cleanliness ».

But beyond these individual dramas, these toilets are often porous, what pollutes the water table. This is all the more true for example in Cotonou as the water is a few meters from the surface.. otherwise, in the rainy season, many of these places of knowledge in the economic capital find themselves flooded. Often then, runoff water joins the waste from traditional toilets and this mixture floats. Result, the entire population, runs the risk of catching diseases of all kinds. This partly explains cases of cholera and other epidemics that regularly break out in Beninese cities..

A country that aspires to modernity and wants to promote the health of its inhabitants can no longer tolerate these infrastructures from another time.. If these persist, in reality, it is because the decision makers, most of whom have been there no longer think they exist, now living in another setting. More, in Benin, a slum is never far from a state-of-the-art villa. Rich or poor, everyone runs the same risks.

When the question of banning traditional toilets is raised, some brandish the argument of lack of means to justify their maintenance. But in reality, this is just an alibi. The State must now ensure the installation of respectful toilets.

Damien TOLOMISSI