Abstract:
Open defecation is an act of unhealthy human practice of defecating in the open instead of toilets which is covered, safe and hygienic. This study therefore is designed to assess open defecation sites and their health implications in the core area of Akure metropolis, Ondo State. The primary data involved recording the coordinates of Open Defecation (OD) sites, public toilets, schools, markets, soil and water samples points with Garmin hand held GPS. Also, Samples of soil and well water were collected at ten locations and a well-structured questionnaire was administered to 394 respondents in the study area. The Secondary data includes Landsat Satellite data for 1991,2002,2014 and 2018 and google earth imagery of the study area. The questionnaires were analyzed using Pearson Chi-square set at 0.05 significant level and the result shows that socio-cultural and environmental factors contribute significantly to the practice of open defecation (p > 0.001). The hotspot analysis shows the location where the practice of open defecation is on very high density while the corridor analysis was used to determine the coverage of existing public toilets as well as siting locations for proposed public toilets in the study area. In addition, the Land Use/Land Cover (LU/LC) prediction shows that the built environment and bare land will be increased while grassland and bush will decline by
the year 2025 and this suggest that there will be a significant reduction in the practice of open defecation in the study area by the year 2025 whereby people do not have open spaces to convert to open defecation sites. From the result of the soil and water tests, there were presence of coliform bacterial and fungi in the samples and this shows that the sampled soil and water are contaminated and water sources within the study area are not safe for drinking. Lastly, the soil spectral characterization shows that there is presence of microbes in the observed soil samples which are associated with Open defecation diseases. The study recommends that government should build modern public toilets in the study area and there should be health education using community participatory approach.
