Hygiene and public health: Ban traditional toilets

Dans une ville comme Cotonou, les WC traditionnels devraient être interdits pour préserver l’hygiène et la santé publique.

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, pour de nombreuses personnes à Cotonou et dans les autres villes du Bénin, 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, les asticots se baladent partout et il n’est pas rare que l’eau chargée d’excréments éclabousse la personne qui s’y soulage.

Au-delà de ces désagréments que subissent les habitants des maisons dotées de ces toilettes d’un autre temps,  traditional toilets are a threat to public health. Il n’est pas exagéré d’affirmer que la plus grande partie des maisons à Cotonou, Porto-Novo et des autres villes du Bénin ne sont dotées que de ce genre d’infrastructure.

Et très peu sont les Béninois qui ne s’y sont jamais rendus pour se soulager. 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.

But beyond these individual dramas, these toilets are often porous, what pollutes the water table. Cela est d’autant plus vrai à Cotonou que l’eau se trouve à quelques mètres de la surface. otherwise, in the rainy season, beaucoup de maisons de la capitale économique se retrouvent inondées. Often then, runoff water joins the waste from traditional toilets and this mixture floats. Therefore, nul n’est à l’abri puisque cela vient pratiquement de toutes les maisons. 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, certains brandissent l’argument de la pauvreté pour justifier leur maintien. But in reality, this is just an alibi. Quelqu’un qui a pu construire une maison et, Furthermore, à mis celle-ci en location, ne peut pas manquer l’argent nécessaire à l’installation de toilettes respectueuses de la dignité humaine.

Pierre MATCHOUDO