Victoria Okoye, Lagos Community Manager
In the area of sanitation, access to improved facilities, expanding women’s management and planning opportunities, and improving women’s safety and security are inextricably linked. For example, for women working in the market, commuting between destinations or even for young girls in school, gender concerns limit their access to finding and accessing private spaces to go to the toilet.
An October 2012 poll of 500 female residents on their sanitation and safety concerns in the slum communities of Ajegunle, Ijora Badia, Oko Agbon and Otto-Oyingbo sets the scene: two out of every five women said they lack access to sanitation facilities. They develop their own, informal solutions, relieving themselves outside, and in the open, such as behind buildings, in open drains, or off roadways.
Over half of the women affirmed that they avoid using public toilets at certain times to avoid any perceived danger. In these spaces, like in open areas, they have to share facilities with men. The lack of privacy makes them vulnerable to public attention and physical and verbal abuse. Many may try to go at night under the cover of dark, but that brings its additional threats and dangers.
“My neighbor or people passing will start staring at you,” said one. “And some will stare like they want to come and rape you.”
For others, the harassment goes beyond perception to the real thing. Another respondent commented: “There is a day I went to the toilet and somebody flogged me from behind.”
There is a strong correlation between women’s sense of safety and access to private toilets, or those available in markets: 77 percent reported feeling unsafe when using public facilities, while 19 percent reported feeling unsafe when using their own private, household facilities. The women reported feeling more safe when they were able to access a toilet in their local market or on public transport than when they had to use a shared or community toilet, or use an open space.
When it comes to improving women’s safety in the urban space, “public services can and must be part of the solution for making their lives safer,” says Ramona Vijeyarasa of WaterAid. She points to the lack of women’s participation in planning, highlighting that women have to be included not only in the as end users, but as managers and planners who work to improve sanitation access throughout the city. The women’s experiences from Ajegunle and other low-income areas highlights that it’s not just about having access to public services, it’s about services that are planned and managed with gender considerations in mind.
In terms of waste management, the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), which manages the collection and disposal of both public and household waste, incorporates one-third female representation in its administrative and technical staff, creating employment opportunities for women, as well as breaking into a male-dominated profession of urban services. Impressed with the female staff’s performance, the agency said in 2012 that it was planing to hire even more female drivers.
On the non-governmental side, a local organization is making inroads. In 2008, two women, Jife Williams and Adeola Asabia, set up MN Environmental Services, an NGO providing sanitation and hygiene services in Lagos. According to Adeola Asabia, the NGO focuses on providing sanitation solutions in low-income areas, markets and lorry parks. Their impacts have gained notoriety for their company as well as the issue of sanitation, earning them a Cartier Women’s Initiative Award in 2009.
Williams and Adeola say that their end goal is to provide Lagosians with modern, clean amenities, and raise people’s awareness about hygiene. As part of their business model, they hire locally from communities, engaging community members as supervisors, cleaners and security guards of the facilities that they help construct. The first public toilet MN Services developed, at New Alayabiaga Market, was constructed with separated male and female sections, with female hygiene assistants for the women’s section, and male assistants for the men’s section, security personnel and a supervisor to manage the facility.
Recognizing women’s concerns, as well as integrating women into the solutions – at the administrative, technical and directoral levels – are integral to addressing women’s safety in sanitation. Planning facilities that are separate, secure and accessible, as well as affordable are the inroads to addressing this challenge. And it seems that slowly but surely, these concerns are coming to the spotlight.