User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in Cameroon

Public toilet in Cameroon are limited, causing disease to spread and continuing the practice of open defecation. There were few public toilets in schools. Public toilets in markets and transport agencies often charged people to access them.

Public toilets
A French speaking country, the local words for toilets include toilettes and WC, while the local word for toilet paper is Papier toilette, the word for men's toilet is hommes and the word for women's toilet is femmes.

The lack of public toilets in Douala in 2010 helped to spread infectious diseases. One of the leading causes of death in 2020 in the country for children under the age of five was diarrheal diseases. This was in large part a result of poor sanitation. Towns were frequently dirty in 2020 because the lack of public toilets meant people practiced open defecation in things in public urban spaces that afforded some privacy.

60% of the population of Cameroon in 2020 lacked access to adequate toilet facilities. In 2020, schools and universities had few toilets available for use by students and staff. That year, events were organized by Cameroon Association to Improve Hygiene  in honor of World Toilet Day at thirty schools in the country.

After a man died following a fight with staff at the FINEX transport agency, the national government asked that transport agencies cease charging people to access public toilets.

Douala
In Douala in 2010, there were few public toilets, including in places where they were traditionally found in other countries like schools, markets, bus stations and train stations. The few public toilets that did exist were often in poor shape. Tourist infrastructure in Douala also lacked public toilets. This was a problem that continued into 2020. That year, Douala and Kribi had a cholera that killed 90 people in September, the result of poor sanitation and cholera getting into untreated water.

Yaounde
The city council of Yaoundé said in 2020 that they were partnering with private companies to try to increase the stock of public toilets in the city. One of the issues for the government of Yaoundé in 2020 was they charged people to use public toilets. Many people could not or would not pay this fee, and instead turned to open defecation. There was a fine in Yaoundé in 2020 of up to USD$20 for people who were practiced open defecation on the streets or in rivers. The Yaoundé city council ordered intercity bus agencies to provide passengers with free access to toilets. A march was held in Yaoundé in 2020 on World Toilet Day demanding more and better access to public toilets in the city and other coastal cities in the country.

While Yaoundé’s Government Primary School Efoulan had around 2,000 students and staff in 2020, the school had only five toilets. Even these had issues, as there was not enough water and toilet paper to properly service them.

Despite these actions, the situations and changes in law the previous year, there were almost no public toilets in Yaounde in 2021. People continued to practice open defecation in Yaounde in 2021. The lack of public toilets in Yaounde in 2021 contributed to health problems in the city. When public toilets were available in Yaounde in 20201, they were mostly located in government buildings, or in facilities like airports, markets, stadiums, places of worships, schools and motor parks. Markets in Yaounde in 2021 that had toilets often charged 50 to 100 frs for people to use them.

Regional and global situation impacting public toilets in Cameroon
Around 2.5 billion people around the world in 2018 did not have access to adequate toilet facilities. Around 4.5 billion people lacked access to proper sanitation. Public toilet access around the world is most acute in the Global South, with around 3.6 billion people, 40% of the world's total population, lacking access to any toilet facilities. 2.3 people in the the Global South do not have toilet facilities in their residence. Despite the fact that the United Nation made a declaration in 2010 that clean water and sanitation is a human right, little has been done in many places towards addressing this on a wider level.

German notions of cultural codes around the usage of public toilets has been exported to many parts of the world as a result of German colonialism, but many places in Africa and the Pacific continue to challenge those norms around cleanliness well into the 2010s. Local resistance to toilet cleanliness justified further German repression on the part of the local population during their colonial period.

In developing countries, unisex public toilets have been a disaster because they make women feel unsafe and fail to consider local religious beliefs. Across Africa, open defecation had social consequences. These included loss of dignity and privacy. It also put women at risk of sexual violence.

An issue in developing countries is toilet access in schools. Only 46% of schools in developing countries have them. Many schools around the world in 2018 did not have toilets, with the problem particularly acute in parts of Africa and Asia. Only one in five primary schools on earth had a toilet and only one in eight secondary schools had public toilets. 344 million children in sub-Saharan Africa did not have a toilet in their home in 2018. The lack of toilet access put these children at risk of water borne diseases.

There are generally two toilet styles in public bathrooms in Africa. One is a traditional squat toilet. The other is a western style toilet with bowl and a place to sit.