Symbolism

In spite of increase global flow increase of resources in financial aid, scientific knowledge and moral support, regions like Sub-Saharan Africa still lag far behind in water and sanitation progress (Akpabio and Takara, 2014). The presence of taps and toilets do not ensure that public health is protected- safe and accessible use of such facilities must be enabled (ibid). Unfortunately, there is much strife in the political, cultural and social aspect of sanitation and hygiene, and this has hampered efforts for substantial headway to provide the population, in particular women and children, with sufficient and accessible hygiene facilities. 

Fig. 1: Long drop lavatories built during the apartheid to forcible move resettlement camps (Penner, 2010)

South Africa, for example, houses some of the most developed regions in Africa. It has, however, also been the grounds for institutional racial segregation in the form of the Apartheid. This in turn has resulted in ordinary details like lavatories, toilets and grass serve as a reminder of brutal political processes, and represent a much deeper problem than simply technology, funding and demand. It highlights inequities of colonism, playing an integral part as the apparatus of state control and central to attempts at social engineering (Penner, 2010). An example of this are long-drop lavatories, built in 1983 during the apartheid as part of the Frankfort resettlement camp to "forcibly re-house black people in Bantustans, or homelands — a plan that failed in this instance because of local resistance"(ibid). 

Sanitation, when a cause of concern in political discussions can be used as a tool to damage human rights, and in social settings, can cause distinctions like race, class, sex and religion. What is unfortunate, however, is that the whilst these symbolic importance of facilities like toilets are fully comprehended by those who are denied access to them, it remains "insufficiently appreciated by those in charge", or those who make the decisions. In the racial legacy of the apartheid, sanitation was treated as an index of equality, and the greater the sensitivity of residents on these standards of provision (ibid). Politically, it also holds ground in historical settings, especially colonism. Flush lavatories are viewed as western standards of success, and may be considered prime indicators of improved living conditions. They signify modernity, and in doing so welcome international business, investments, and tourism (Penner, 2010; Sood, 2012). 

Much of Africa's regions are home to communities that strongly value cultural and traditional symbolisms, transcending into the value of water and sanitation. Local defecation practices are often influenced by deeply entrenched cultural norms and taboos (Jewitt, 2011), and human waste is often considered a dangerous product with religious beliefs tied to it. In Madagascar, there are strong taboos against storage sewage underground and contaminating the dead, or putting one's person's faeces on top of another's. Similarly in Uganda, colonial reports show that it was believed that cess pits might allow excreta to be used by sorcerers to cause harm (Jewitt, 2011). Socially, faeces are taboo among communities like the Akan community in Ghana, where it is informally generalized that jobs involving emptying of toilet buckets and the cleaning of public lavatories are carried out by krufoo (people of the night) who traditionally originate from Sierra Leone and Liberia (van der Geest, 1998 in Jewitt, 2011). The work is so "dirty" and "poorly paid" that the rest of the Akan community would never dream of dealing with it. van der Geest (1998) argues that defacation in Ghana houses may contradictions: in their obsession with avoiding dirt, they have extremely inefficient systems of dealing with it, and often have filthy, overflowing public latrines or defecating in plastic bags which are later thrown out as part of municipal waste. He describes this as the "hygenic puzzle": the Akan are so afraid of shit and are so faecophobic that they simply refuse to think about it and the fact that they have to pass these out is a something that they do not want to think about. 

Water is similarly nestled in religious beliefs, spiritual myths and taboos. On the contrary, however, it can be considered overtly sacred and possess profound meaning in ritual cleansing and sacredness (Akpabio and Takara, 2014). The people of Bambara identify the Niger River with the body of their deity Faro and the waters specially linked to conferring fertility. Ethopia also holds beliefs of the demonstration of a very well-defined human relation with the water spirits, strengthened by the many healing functions ascribed to spirits (ibid). Akpabio and Takara (2014) argue that communities living close to bodies of water develop complex forms of supernatural beliefs in water spirits and deities, using this to exert controlling influence on sanitation practices. Water, with all its uses, represent both control of the collective existence and livelihoods of the local population and also a resource for the disposal of all human waste, though it overall has the use of healing over killing. It can be a sensitive topic when you consider the fact that the same water body is used for laundry, bathing, drinking and also dumping of excreta. 

Women and girls, in particular, are vulnerable to the effects of insufficient and inaccessible water and sanitation. In Senegal and wider Africa, they represent the "de facto managers of water, sanitation and hygiene services in the household and community", and yet are "absent in the decision-making process" (UN, 2013). Without a doubt, they suffer especially when disadvantaged during menstruation periods, which have wider social and economic implications. This will be discussed in my next post about menstruations and this vicious cycle of gender inequality regarding water and sanitation.