Have you ever had a pressing need outside of your home? How many toilets have you seen downtown? World Toilet Day, celebrated every November 19 since 2001, which is an opportunity to raise the problem of the absence of toilet facilities in the capital’s arteries, has been largely ignored in Gabon. A day which nevertheless highlights a crucial problem: the absence of dignified places of comfort. While this day aims to raise public awareness of hygiene and sanitation issues, the realities of daily life in Libreville and rural areas reveal an alarming situation.
Gabonese people, faced with a shortage of public toilets, often have to resort to unsuitable solutions, going so far as to relieve themselves in the great outdoors. This practice exposes individuals to humiliation and considerable health risks. A young woman testifies:On several occasions, I had to relieve myself in the city center, exposed to the gaze of onlookers. I’m not ready to forget this humiliation.”
This crisis also affects leisure and commercial establishments. Bars, restaurants and markets often lack suitable toilets for their customers. Worse still, users are forced to use neighbors’ walls, causing tensions and fines, as indicated by the warning signs placed at the entrance to certain places.
In public administrations and educational establishments, and even hospitals, the situation is just as worrying. Toilets are often poorly maintained, transforming supposedly dignified infrastructure into centers of disease. A civil servant shares: “Our toilets have been blocked for over a year and we are forced to look elsewhere.” Women, in particular, find themselves in a delicate position, developing strategies to cope with this situation.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warns of the serious consequences of the lack of toilets. Excrement, a veritable reservoir of microbes, can contaminate water and food, leading to fatal water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera or typhoid. Each year, these conditions cause millions of deaths, and the economic cost of lack of toilets amounts to $260 billion worldwide, not including the environmental impact.
It is therefore imperative that the Gabonese authorities take concrete measures to improve access to toilets. The construction of toilets should become a priority
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