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Night soil – an unsanitary way of dealing with sanitation in Antigua and Barbuda

By Onika Campbell
 
St. John’s, 11 August 2006 (Panos) - In some communities of Antigua and Barbuda, night soil is the best means of dealing with the lack of toilet facilities.
 
“I live here for 12 years. When I came here, I see everybody without toilet so it is the norm. We ease our body how we can, while the government give some of us something call night soil, then collect the faeces,” said a resident of Booby Alley in Antigua.
 
Night soil is a nice way of saying that residents defecate in a container which is collected at nights by government sanitation teams.
 
According to Chief Health Inspector Lionel Michael, while the government has been concerned about the practise of night soil, it has not yet been able to adequately address the issue.
 
"The government has wanted to abolish night soil, but we found that it is very difficult to do,’ said Michael. “The night soil system definitely needs to be re-visited; it is not hygienic, in the sense that the men have to be equipped to collect it. They have to have their gloves and mask and so on, and the householders have to apply and treat the waste before the men collect it. It is not the best hygienic system."
 
According to Michael, while the law is clear that everyone in the islands should have a toilet, there are still persons without. Night soil, he said, is part of the government’s initiatives to assist. He explained that in communities such as Villa, Ottos and Gray's Farm night soil is provided.

"Pit Latrine and bucket which is night soil is predominant in Antigua. The land-space, the water table, etc, makes it difficult for you to really build other things apart from those systems. I am not denying that there are areas that don't have toilet facilities," Michael said.
 
He added that while they have had instances where the Central Board of Health (CBH) has stepped into to build toilet facilities for residents, it has not been a frequent occurrence.
 
"There is a law where we can order the building of latrines," he said, adding that in cases where the area is clustered like Booby Alley, it is not feasible to build latrines due to the limited land-space.  “That is why night soil is provided in some areas."
 
The CBH informs that about 60-percent of the population uses septic tanks, 26 -per-cent account for pit latrines, while the remaining 14 percent is shared between night soil and no toilets.
 
Asked about kiting, (defecating in a bag or container then throwing it away), Michael, admitted that there were occurrences.
 
"Yes, there might be individuals that might be doing that, but that is not the general norm. It is not wide spread," he said.
 
Taking a swipe at property owners who construct without the necessary conveniences, Michael said, "If you are renting a house to somebody you must provide bathroom facilities, toilets or make other arrangement for disposable waste. I can speak for congested areas such as Booby Alley and so on where people use common toilets, but in terms of no toilets, it is not widespread in Antigua. It does happen though where people cannot provide proper housing, much less toilets."

He stressed that latrine projects in Grays Farm and Pointe were carried out in the past, aimed at reaching persons who wanted to improve their sanitation situation.
 
“This was done on an individual basis,” said the chief health inspector.
 
Can the lack of toilet facilities pose a health hazard?
 
"Without latrine facilities, there can be an adverse effect on human health," admits Michael. He downplayed however the aspect of it polluting the ground water in Antigua.

"The water supply that we get in Grays Farm does not come from the ground in Grays Farm. Where the well water comes from, there is no impact on the supply," he said. Some years ago, Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) was forced to close down water catchment facilities in the south after residents encroached on the water fields. Michael said the effect was to avert water contamination.
 
Research shows that one gram of faeces can contain up to 10 million viruses, 1 million bacteria, 1 thousand parasite cysts and a hundred worm eggs.
 
But according to Michael, "the evidence relating to the incidences of diarrhoea is very low and we are not able to trace that to the fact that people don't have latrine. Even if people don't have latrine there are other factors that contributes to diarrhoea such as hand washing and food safety.”

Regarding monies allocated towards health, the CBH boss said that they were only able to pay sanitation workers in communities after 2004. Asked about the routine before that, Michael said the communities were without.
 
“Before then in Rural North there was never a gang, now you have two." Other communities that have benefited from central government funding are Lower Ottos and Radio Range that were without sanitation team. Grays Farm has also increased the crew from one to four. Villa and Pointe now has three.