AN EDUCATIONAL EVALUATIVE STUDY OF THE PATTERNS AND DEGREE OF UTILIZATION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE IBADAN COMFORT STATIONS

Abstract

With the development of human settlements, there usually arise problems of environmental pollutions. These problems are merely pronounced in congested cities like Ibadan in Oyo State of Nigeria due to improper planning. One of such environmental problems identified in Ibadan was misuse of the Ibadan Comfort stations sponsored originally by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the then Western Region of Nigeria between 1969 to 1975. These Comfort Stations are public convenience/facilities designed to provide toilets, bathing and wash rooms under the same roof for members of extended family compounds which abound in the inner core areas of the city. The facilities are owned by interested family compounds who provided land and labour for their constructions. Since their inception, no efforts were ever made to monitor their performance. Thus this study was undertaken to find out their pattern of use and degree of utilisation and maintenance. It is designed essentially to be an educational evaluative study. The study involved all the 42 Comfort Stations in Ibadan which serve 42 family compounds that spread over 14 of the 45 Administrative wards of Ibadan Municipal Government Council. Interview questionnaires were administered to two Heads or Senior most male and female inmates from the 450 randomly selected households. The questionnaire addressed on issues related to socio-cultural, behavioural, attitudinal and economic aspects in the communities. The interview schedule covered about 40 percent of the total households in the study area. Reasons for non-utilization of the Comfort Stations were attributed to lack of regular water supply (25%), electricity (5.4%), inability to meet costs (11.0%) and non-cooperation between households (4.8%), among other reasons. Personal visits were also made to 42 Comfort Stations and observation of activities in them indicated that 31.6% lacked cleanliness, adequate repairs and maintenance misuse or complete disuse of the Stations. The insanitary effects in such situations were significantly striking. The inner core communities held different views on the purpose of Comfort Stations: Some (19.4%) saw them as mere Government amenities, 14.7% and 1.2% took them for common properties and aesthetic structures, respectively. 13.3% did not answer the question while 2.2% showed complete ignorance of their existence. This means that less than half of the populace (43%) knew purpose for which Comfort Stations were built. The study proved that the provision of health education in the process of introducing new programmes is significant. It was discovered that older stations built during the first phase (1970-1975), when there was health education activities, were generally still kept cleaner (28%) than the newly built ones from 1976 to date which were only 17.6%. It is expected that necessary health education strategies through Local Health Committees would go a long way in revitalizing peoples' behaviours towards these facilities.