PUBLIC TOILETS: A LEVERAGE FOR DEVELOPMENT

03 Jul PUBLIC TOILETS: A LEVERAGE FOR DEVELOPMENT

Humans will continue to use toilets so long as they eat, drink, have their digestive and bowel system functioning. But what happens when nature calls at odd and creative times? You try to find the closest place to do your business, which ideally should be a Public toilet ( Mobile and Non-mobile) that’s clean and safe. 

This is not the case in Nigeria. We have a scarce supply and its cleanliness can not be guaranteed. In Obalende area of Lagos State, Nigeria, you can hardly find a public toilet within a 300-meter walking distance and  Lagos metropolis has a population size of 14,368,000 people.

Can Our Public Toilets Be Better?

Countries with standard public toilets that are used and  enjoyed by citizens and tourists when they come in, were not always like that. The start out is majorly ditches or holes in ground then to squat toilets and western-style toilets (seated). They all passed through the same phase, although some have gone ahead technologically like Japan, and others have transformed theirs to be better like China. 

Public toilets in Japan consists of:

• Traditional Japanese toilet (squat toilet) which Japan plans to phase out.
• Western-style toilet (seated toilets or water closet). 
• Multifunction toilet (tech toilets); all types are free to use, well maintained and clean.

China started its toilet revolution campaign in 2015 to improve the quality of toilets and public bathrooms. They concentrated on three main features: making them more available, more modern, and improving the cleanliness and smell. In five (5) years, China has been able to transform its public toilets to better ones that can be used by citizens and tourists. 

What Did They Do?

China refurbished 68,000 public toilets in five (5)years. China’s government started the revolution about toilets.

A little back story…

The Head of the National Tourism Administration (NTA), Li Jinzao, was pushing for this idea of the Toilet Revolution. The NTA officially launched the Toilet Revolution in late February 2015. Li had previously launched similar campaigns when he served as mayor of picturesque Guilin (1998-2002), it was to help increase international tourism after hearing many foreigners complain about the despicable local lavatories.

But under Li’s guidance, the Guilin city government oversaw the construction of 849 new “tourism toilets” in 2000, which later on was tagged the “Gulin Model”.

Taking over as head of NTA in 2014, he decided to double down on the “Gulin Model” to develop tourism, his agenda caught the attention of the president of China-Xi Jinping. Xi Jinping saw the toilet revolution as not just for tourism but china as a whole. On April 1 2015, Xi personally made “written comments” (pishi) on an NTA report, instructing the agency to “seize” the Toilet Revolution to combat “perennial maladies and ugly habits…” The backing of a president who also believed that tourism is “an important indicator of the improved living standards of the people”, solidified the agenda for the toilet revolution. 5 days after Xi’s comment, a 3-year plan was released.

For Japan, it was their cleanliness / hygiene culture. Cleanliness is the way of life of the Japanese and this is linked to what they call Shinto meaning ‘The Way of The Gods’. It is said to enshrine the very soul of the Japanese identity and cleanliness lies at the heart of Shinto. In Shinto, cleanliness is godliness. This was the principle the ad campaign was built on for it to be accepted by the citizens. 

What citizens in Japan did and also the government in China can be easily replicated here in Nigeria, so that we can have suitable public toilets for citizens and visitors / tourists.

As citizens, are we clean in our little spaces? How do we communicate our cleanliness? When you watch Japanese movies, notice how they pull off their shoes and put on different slippers in the home. That shows their cleanliness culture and one of the little ways they portray it. If we all had this kind of attitude including the government, there’s no need for so much noise before we see results.

The onus isn’t only on the people, the government has a major role to play and we need to demand it. They have a responsibility to provide basic amenities for citizens and this is our right. Leaders should also listen like Li Jinzao, as he was able to start the campaign of Toilet Revolution because he listened to the complaints about the state of toilets in Guilin.

A few starting points for our government:

• They need to upgrade existing public restrooms to best standard that can be used by citizens and tourists.
• They need to build more restrooms.
• Take sustainable steps and actions on the needs of the citizen. 

Public toilet availability might just be the key to reducing poverty levels in Nigeria, this might be our way out. Think about it.

Japan has shown that anything is possible, they didn’t start the invention of high tech toilets but they have overtaken the Americans who started it and have also become the voice in high tech toilets.