Gloria Iyoyo is a resident of Setari Polo Community in Igbisikalama town in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area of Rivers State. She is one of the many community residents who suffer from poor sanitary conditions in slum communities in Port Harcourt. Gloria, like many others, also suffers from the brunt of polluted water source occasioned by open defecation and improper faeces and waste disposal in the communities.
Igbisikalama town is one of the indigenous Okrika Ijaw towns in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area. It is made up of nine riverine communities which are also popularly called waterside communities. The communities which form part of the popular Ward 7, the largest political Ward in the LGA, are all located in the old Port Harcourt Township. This reporter visited the communities to ascertain the sanitary conditions in the area. The visitation was triggered by informal reports received from some health officials from some nearby health facilities indicating a prevalence of toilet and other pollution induced infections in most of the communities. The report indicates that infections like Shigella Bacteria, Norovirus, Gardnerella, Staphylococcus, Escherichia Coli (Ecoli), etc, are on the rise in the communities. The report indicates further that many community members who visit the health facilities were diagnosed with the toilet and pollution induced diseases. The visit to the communities was revealing and very significant in many ways. First, it is significant because it shows the extent of neglect for grass root development by governments. The neglect is defined in terms of the lack of basic social amenities such as water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Secondly the visit revealed that access to WASH services is not keeping pace with increasing population across Nigeria. Our findings in the communities further corroborates a recent report, released by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Water Resources and UNICEF, which stated that one-third of the population drinks contaminated water at home and 46 million people are still practicing open defecation.
The report which was a product of data generated from a ‘Water, Sanitation, Hygiene National Outcome Routine Mapping Survey in 2019, reveals that although Nigeria was making progress in efforts to address the challenges of poor sanitary conditions in communities, there is still a huge gap in Nigerians’ access to water, sanitation and hygiene services. The Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, also recently informed that only 20 per cent of hospitals in Nigeria have basic sanitation facilities. The Minister, who made the revelation in mid April 2022, said “Our statistics are abysmally low. Only 20 per cent of health facilities have adequate hygiene facilities. We must, therefore, explore and take maximum advantage of these opportunities.”
An analysis of conditions in the individual communities shows that living conditions in the communities is extremely unhygienic and negates basic norms of planned urban development. The communities are also vulnerable to disease outbreak as a result of polluted water sources and stagnant drainage systems. A major finding in all the nine communities visited however revealed that there is an absence of government funded sanitary facilities. These include public toilets, health facilities, water boreholes and flowing drainage systems.
An assessment of the sanitary condition of individual communities
Ala Polo Community: Ala Polo community is located behind the New Layout Market and Enugu Street in the Eastern part of the ‘Old Port Harcourt Township.’ The community is host to the popular moribund Plaza Cinema Theatre from the colonial era. The community had a Mono Pump built by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in 2004. A visit to the site of the mono pump showed that the pump has since stopped working and the land bought and developed for a residential apartment. Although there are several private boreholes, there are no public water sources. The community also has only one public hanging toilet built through a community initiative. Users must pay N10, naira per use before the facility can be accessed. However many residents complained they are unable to access the toilet due to proximity challenges. The public toilet is also located very close to residential apartments who suffer from the stench of human faeces when there is no river water from the adjourning creek to take the faeces away. Only 1% of the drainages in the community are actually linked to the adjourning creek. This leads to massive flooding in the community during the rainy season. Residents who spoke to this reporter informed that although the community is always flooded whenever it rains, the rain however gives them an opportunity to throw their faeces into the drainages. Some also informed that the rain also washes the roofs off faeces which may have been thrown on them by some community residents.
Amagboribipi Polo: Amagboribipi community has no public toilet and any health facility. The community is located behind the St John’s Anglican Church and mostly around Bishop Johnson and Ibadan Streets. Community sources informed that there was a mono pump in the area which broke down and became moribund two months after its installation by UNICEF. In 2019 the International Red Cross (ICRC) constructed a solar-powered borehole. Just like Ala community, Amagboribipi community suffers from poor sanitary conditions. There is a commercial private toilet where residents pay for access. But proximity is also a challenge for many for easy access. Community leaders who spoke to our correspondent stated that there are plans by the community to build a community toilet.
Data obtained from community leaders indicates that the community has an approximate number of 745 households and 9 private schools. Some of the school proprietors informed that they have a make-shift provision for the students using a big rubber bucket. Some however informed that they use toilet pits.
Amayana Polo: Amayana Community is a relatively smaller community compared to Amagboribipi community. According to community leaders, the community is made up of 416 households. Unlike other communities, Amayana community boasts of several private hospitals and two government secondary and primary schools. The community also has several private boreholes which serve as source of drinking water to most of the community residents. In addition, most of the houses in the area also have toilets.
However, most of the toilets in the compounds are pit toilets which serve an average of twelve households. A tenant who does not want his name in print informed this reporter that his own compound has two pit toilets which serve a total number of 18 people. Each of the toilets he said is divided evenly between men and women. He also informed that his wife and female children have stopped using the women pit toilet due to frequent infections. “As for me, I have stopped my wife and my two girls from using their toilet because of frequent infections…they now use alternative channels.” When asked to explain the alternative channel, he said: “We use alternative channel; we know how we handle it (laughter).” His story is similar to many others within the community according to Mrs Iringeri Jonathan, a garri seller at the New Market Layout. She explained that, many residents, who live in the community and do business in the market, rely on the market toilets which she said are better equipped and treated regularly.
Belema Polo: Belema community is located directly behind Baptist High School. The community is accessible from Enugu Street or through the Baptist High School. The community boasts of three hanging toilets. The names of the toilets are Adam & Eve, Monkey, and Long Bridge. While the Long Bridge toilet is only accessible upon the payment of N10.00 per use, residents must pay N20.00 to access the Adam & Eve and Monkey toilets. The Adam and Eve toilet is a concrete block while the Monkey and Long Bridge toilets are constructed with wooden materials.
Adam and Eve toilet which is a project in the Office of Nigeria’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG), is unarguably the most comfortable public toilet in the area.
The community does not have safe drinking water; residents of the community either patronize pure water merchants or a popular water merchant at Aggrey Road. The community currently has one major access road, which is currently damaged from erosion and continuing to become narrower with heavy rains. There are many footbridges in the community with one of the major bridges reconstructed with concrete. According to community leaders, the community currently has 247 households including other business structures. The community also suffers from massive flood related challenges. It is reported that due to indiscriminate activities of land developers, most of the drainages in the community are either blocked or not properly linked to rivers sources. This reporter also had a taste of the flood on September 19, 2022, when he visited the community to ascertain the sanitary challenges faced by the community. The flooding which often flows down from the Baptist High School overflows the drainages and enters into homes and business centres. Over time, the waters become stagnant and eventually breed mosquitoes and reptiles according to residents. The stagnant water also comes with very offensive smell due to the human faeces and other waste items it carries with it. Residents also take advantage of the rain to dispose their solid wastes into the ensuing flood.
Deinma Polo: Deinma Polo community is located directly behind Enugu Street and stretches through some parts of Aggrey Estate. Community sources said the area has an approximate number of 310 households, 9 private schools, 2 public toilets and 1 public borehole. The community shares a thin boundary with Belema Polo community which makes it susceptible to the poor sanitary conditions faced by Belma Polo community. The two public toilets in the community were constructed and donated by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in 2013. Residents pay N10.00 per use and it is regulated and managed by a sanitation committee set up by the community leadership. The community has also developed two new phases and subdivided the community into three other areas. The sanitary conditions in the area are the same with other communities described so far. The community is accessible by pedestrians only and has several footbridges that extend into rapidly growing parts of the community in the mangroves. Some interior roads have also been paved, through community efforts using youth labour within the community. Just like other adjourning communities, the community relies on the Churchill Health Centre located along Churchill Road for its medical needs.
Ibitein Polo: Ibitein community had one public borehole that allowed residents to connect directly to their homes for a one-time connection fee of N1,000 and a monthly fee of N1,000. More than 100 houses were connected from within the community and surrounding communities. The water quality according to community sources was ascertained by officials from the Rivers State Water Regulatory Authority. However the borehole has since become moribund, as residents now rely on private water suppliers. The community is behind the Baptist High School, opposite Moore House Street and also beside Enugu Street. At present the community has only one toilet on still built through a community initiative. Users pay N10.00 per time of use. The toilet manager, Mr. Ilori Agbani said the N10.00 payment is for the maintenance and purchase of detergents for the cleaning of the toilet.
Ngofaka Polo: Ngofaka community is located behind Aggrey Estate at the end of Aggrey Road. The community has wooden footbridges with recently constructed with concrete. Just like many other communities, Ngofaka Polo does not have public boreholes or toilets. The community also went into partnership with the estate to share in the use of the power transformer. The community suffers from major floods whenever it rains or the nearby river overflows its banks. This is majorly attributed to land reclamation activities and unregulated building activities which have blocked major water channels. At present the community only allows pedestrian access and there is no major access or internal roads.
Due to the nature of how the buildings were constructed, residents complain of poor air quality as a result of congestion.
Setari Polo: Setari community shares its southernmost boundary with the popular Port Harcourt Tourist Beach peninsula. The non-water front boundary is Moore House Street. The community is also located adjacent the Churchill Garri Market. Setari community has no public borehole. The mono pump that was constructed by UNICEF in 2011, is no longer functional and the land where it was constructed has also been sold to a private developer, who has since developed a residential apartment in the area. The community does not have a public toilet. There was one public toilet that has been demolished due to its state of disrepair. Community leaders say they are in the process of building a new one.
In a chat with a community resident, Miss Gloria Iyoyo, she informed that most of the houses in the community don’t have toilets. She said a lot of residents defecate in a plastic bag at night and dispose it in the morning. In her words: “We don’t have toilets in this place; you can hardly find any house that has a toilet in this area. Some compounds have pit toilets.” She also said while some residents dispose their faeces on the roofs of houses in the community. Some others patronize nylon toilets on stiles in Belema community. “Some of us defecate inside nylon bags and discard it on the roof or throw it in the drainage. Sometimes, when you can still hold it, we go to Belema Polo and pay N20.00 to use the public toilet.” Setari Polo also has serious flooding challenges which come with many polluted elements. The major source of the flood is from the Baptist High School and the Churchill Garri Market. The flood is made worse as a result of blocked river channels within the community. Residents accuse the past community leadership of greedily selling off water channels to people who have now built on water ways. They also accused the community leadership of not doing enough to attract government to assistthe community. The flood water comes with a very offensive odour with black plastic bags which residents say are faeces.
Tarikoro Polo: Tari community shares a similar fate with Setari community. No public toilet, borehole and health facilities. It also grapples with flood related challenges which often results in outbreak of diseases. The houses are built without considerations for proper drainage systems. The community is located on a peninsular adjacent to Port Harcourt Tourist Beach, a well-known recreational centre. The community is only accessible by pedestrians through several internal and access roads.
What Community Leaders are saying
A lot of the community leaders who spoke to us, expressed frustration over government’s indifference in the development of the communities and the provision of basic social amenities. They all alluded to deliberate marginalization and the politicization of development in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area. Speaking on the terrible state of sanitary conditions in the communities, the Chairman of Igbisikalama and Chairmen of Setari, Belema, Tarikoro, Ngofaka, and Ibitein Communities all lamented and informed that they had made series of efforts to attract the attention of government to the plight of the communities. The Chairman of Igbisikalam town, Bishop Jeremiah Igbiks informed that no community in the town is different from each other in terms of challenges posed by the absence of basic social amenities. He said he has led several government officials to the communities to witness for themselves the challenges faced by the communities. He however lamented that the visits have not received any significant response from government.
He also noted that even when a government official from the Port Harcourt City Local Government Area visited one of the communities to assess the deplorable state of a major access road to the community, nothing was done until the road was eventually washed off. He said it took the intervention of the Redeemed Christian Church of God which eventually constructed a new access road for the community. In his words: “Sometimes I wonder why we are treated this way; every day you hear them commission one project to the other but you hardly see any government presence in our communities. They have visited these communities many times so it is not as if they are not aware that our communities have major challenges of health, water and even toilet facility.”
Speaking further, the Chairman challenged this reporter to visit the communities during the heavy rains to see things for myself. When told that I was actually trapped in Belema Setari Polo by the rain during my visit he said “Oh so that means you have also witnessed what I was just explaining to you.” Continuing he said: “Do you know that many of us don’t like the rains? Because when it rains you can hardly stay in your house due to flooding. The water smells badly due to the sh’t they pour in the drainages and this is not good for our health.”
However the Chairman of Setari community, Mr Clement Alabo, stated that as part of efforts to control open defecation and indiscriminate disposal of faeces and solid waste into drainages, his administration set up a sanitary committee which was saddled with the responsibility organizing monthly sanitation in the community. He said the committee was mandated to also discipline any community member found engaging in indiscriminate disposal of faeces which he said attracts a fine of N10, 000.00. He also said failure to participate in monthly sanitation in the community attracts a fine of N5, 000.00. He informed that the community has put in place a whistle blowing policy which encourages community members to alert the community leadership on issues of open defecation and indiscriminate disposal of faeces and solid waste. So far the whistle blowing policy is paying as it has reduced incidences of open defication and indiscriminate dumping of faeces and waste into drainages.
Apart from the absence of basic social amenities in the communities, community leaders alleged that there has been a systematic discrimination of Port Harcourt Okrika Ijaw indigenes by successive leaderships in the LGA. They said discriminations are manifest in the form of deliberate refusal to grant Local Government Identification Letters to Okrika Ijaw indigenes from the LGA, including the non-recognition of Chieftaincy stools from Okrika Ijaw dominated communities in the LGA by the Rivers State Government.
However in a chat with the Chief Press Secretary to the Mayor, Mr Bob Abayomi, the CPS informed that government was responding to the sanitary challenges in the communities. He said despite limited resources, the Council has ensured that priority is given to projects that enhance the wellbeing of the people. For instance, the CPS stated that, in a bid to address the sanitary challenges in the communities, the council recently built and commissioned a public toilet in one of the waterfront communities behind Captain Amangala Street in the old Port Harcourt township axis of Borokiri. He said the project was nominated by the communities through the Councilor representing Port Harcourt Ward 7. In his words: “the council is doing everything within its lean resources to embark on projects that enhance the wellbeing of the communities in the LGA. We even recently completed and commissioned one public toilet in one of those communities around Captain Amagala Street.”
Mr Abayomi also promised to send to this reporter a list of public toilets, water and other sanitary related projects embarked upon by the council in the communities. As at the time of going to press, the list was yet to be sent as he informed that the office of the mayor was busy with project commissioning at the moment. Before the chat with the CPS, this reporter visited the Office of the Mayor of Port Harcourt on September 20, 21, 22, 26, & 27, 2022, for reactions but was not successful. In all the visits, the reporter was told that all officials in the Chairman’s office including that of the Deputy Mayor, were busy inaugurating projects hence will be unavailable to respond to questions.
General Sanitary Conditions of the Communities
All communities visited showed serious environmental health risks particularly to vulnerable populations such as children, women and the elderly. A lot of the informal reports on health challenges emanating from the communities indicate that most of the victims are women and children. While the women are the worst hit in toilet infections, the children are the worst hit in polluted water infection.
In a chat with some health officials from the Churchill Health Centre and Nigerian Naval Clinic Borikiri, it was gathered that apart from the high prevalence of diseases arising from poor sanitary conditions, there is also a high prevalence rate of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The health workers informed that most of the HIV cases were contacted through illegal abortion centres and traditional birth attendants due to lack of proper sterilization mechanisms. The situation is further compounded by the lack of affordable public healthcare facilities in the communities. Beyond the health challenges, communities visited showed physical lack of appropriate garbage disposal facilities and good drainage systems. There is also a noticeable absence of flood control mechanism, poor hygiene and signs of open defecation in ditches and drainages. These conditions pose serious threats to the health of the communities and may lead to wider outbreak of infectious diseases.
