Open defecation (OD) has become an environmental and public health challenge in most urban and rural areas of Nigeria. The menace has also become an affront to the dignity of even those who engage in the practice. Those affected surprising pollute the environmental resources they need to sustain their own lives and those of others not party to the practice. While efforts have been made by different authorities to reduce the scourge of OD, not much seems to have come out of these efforts. Using both experimental and qualitative research approaches from a wide range of occupational groups in two areas of Ebonyi State; Abakaliki and Afikpo, this study demonstrates awareness, knowledge, practice as well as consequences associated with open defecation in communities studied and how to begin to pursue a more sustainable approach to the eradication of OD in the affected communities.
Egbu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.