Sanitation and Faecal Waste Disposal in Shanty Slums of Douala, Cameroon

Abstract

Sanitation and Faecal Waste Disposal in Shanty Slums of Douala, Cameroon 1. Introduction Wherever people gather, their waste accumulates. Despite the fact that there has been progress in sanitation hygiene with an improvement in health, many people still have no adequate means of disposing their wastes. This aspect is a growing nuisance for heavily populated areas, with risks of infectious diseases such as the very young, elderly and people suffering from diseases that weaken their immune defence. The accumulation of faecal contamination in rivers and other water features is not only a human risk but other organisms are affected, threatening the ecological balance of the environment. The discharge of untreated wastewater and excreta into the environment affects human health be numerous means (WHO report 2004). More than a billion people currently live in slums with the number expected to increase in the coming decades. Majority of slums are located in urban centres in less economically developed countries (Ron Mahabir et al. 2016).Sanitation is an important aspect of socio cultural development because low sanitation index leads to host diseases. Reddy and colleagues argued that sanitation implies much more than defecation issues and that cleaning tasks are mostly carried out by women with little assistance from men so need to be involved when taking decisions in relationship to sanitation or designing programs. (Reddy, BS & Snehalatha, M. 2011) 1.1. Literature Review One of the focuses of the millennium development goals is on everyday life in slums reflected in some of the researches and literature through interviews of women and girls on their daily coping strategies as well as experiences. Bapat & Agarwai (2003) carried out a study interviewing women on their challenges of using filthy toilets and in all types of weather in Mumbai and Pune. In eight South Asian countries, over a billion people are without safe sanitation in a study that was focused on the aspirations of thousands of thousands of women in different ages and physical abilities. FANSA 2016. Poor women working in an informal sector especially domestic cleaners, waste rag pickers have challenges of toilet facilities accessibility due to the fact that they have problems finding toilets (Dey and Wilk 2015). Adolescent girls living in informal settlements in Bangalore when asked on what could be done to improve their lives, most responded that the needed access to safe toilet. The women deprivations these girls face due to lack of sanitation facilities in education, privacy, mobility in public places and harassment they face chronic communicable diseases (Nallaris (2015; p. 73). Abrahams and Mathews carried out a study where they asked 16 years and older girls how they perceived the risks of using toilets at school and how they negotiated such dangers. This revealed that the schools either had no toilets or filthy and very inadequate ones which were dark, smelly; blocked and broken (Abrahams & Mathews 2006, p. 752). The ground around these toilets was...