Status of Sanitation Facilities and Factors Influencing Faecal Disposal Practices in Selected Low-Income Communities in Ibadan, Nigeria

Safe disposal of faeces has become a very important issue as a result of its significant implication in the quality of life of people in our society. This paper examined the status of sanitation facilities and factors influencing faecal disposal practices in selected low-income communities in Ibadan, Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional design and utilized a 3-stage sampling technique to select streets, households and 221 respondents who participated in the study from Yemetu. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information on respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of safe faecal disposal and faecal disposal practices. Sanitary conditions of toilets were observed using a checklist. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and logistic regression were used to analyse data and level of significance was set at 0.05. Respondents’ mean age was 31.1± 12.1 years, monthly income ranged between ？2,000 and ？125,000. Eighty-two percent had toilet facilities in their houses while 55.6% used Yemetu stream as an alternative place to defecate. About 90.1% of the respondents with toilets shared the facility with other families. Majority (64.5%) had good knowledge of safe faecal disposal, 55.2% had poor faecal disposal practice. Practice of safe faecal disposal was found to be statistically significant with educational status (p < 0.05) and monthly income (p < 0.05). Respondents who have toilet facility within houses were 6 times more likely to practice safe faecal disposal (OR = 6.318, CI = 2.704 - 14.759). Observation revealed that shared toilet facilities was the dominant disposal practice in the community and were not in a good sanitary condition. Practice of safe faecal disposal was poor and sanitation facilities were not in good sanitary conditions. Availability of toilet facility within homes improves safe faecal disposal practice. The study suggests the provision of more toilet facilities through empowerment programs by necessary stakeholders in order to improve the status of sanitation in the community