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Cameroon Activists March for Toilets, Improved Sanitation

Moki Edwin Kindzeka

   YAOUNDE, CAMEROON - Activists in Cameroon held events and marches for
   Thursday's World Toilet Day, calling on authorities to provide more
   public bathrooms. Cameroonian authorities say 60% of its 25 million
   people lack toilets, fueling the spread of diseases such as cholera and
   dysentery.

   School authorities at Yaoundé's Government Primary School Efoulan say
   they have close to 2,000 children and teachers but only five toilets,
   which are often unusable as they run short of water and toilet paper.

   The Cameroon Association to Improve Hygiene organized this and similar
   events in 30 schools in the capital to mark this year's World Toilet
   Day.

   The group's head, Edmond Kimbi, said hundreds of their members also
   marched in Yaoundé and coastal cities to demand more and better public
   toilets.

   "It is actually too regrettable that schools and universities have very
   few toilets, which lack water and are always dirty," he said. "It is
   worse when you visit markets, where thousands of people visit the
   markets each day. The consequences of this is that nearby bushes and
   dark corners are being transformed into toilets, thereby making our
   towns always dirty."

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