Toilets can make Africa’s roads safer, says new study

Festival Godwin Boateng For The Conversation

London: Travelling on Africa's roads comes with many challenges. The biggest is arriving at your destination safely. The continent is one of the hotspots of global road trauma. Its traffic deaths account for about one quarter of the global number of victims, despite having less than 4 per cent of the world’s vehicle fleet.

The situation in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly dire. Road crashes affect this region more than any other in the world. Its road fatality rate of 27 per 100,000 people is three times higher than Europe's average of 9 and well above the global average of 18.

Then there's Africa's road infrastructure. Despite recent rising investments in road developments, the quality of roads in many African countries is generally low. This has been captured in research reports, the World Economic Forum's surveys and the International Monetary Fund's cross-country road quality ranking.

Crashes and poor roads are not the only things that can make travelling a less-than-pleasant experience. Another is a lack of toilets. You are in deep trouble if nature calls you while travelling on Africa's roads. When planning roads and mobility, the authorities rarely include access to adequate, safe and clean toilets.

In 2020 a public interest lawyer, Adrian Kamotho Njenga, successfully sued some authorities in Kenya, compelling them to provide toilets for travellers.

It is not a uniquely African problem. Similar challenges exist in the US and the UK.

The difference is that in those places, researchers are building knowledge about the problem to influence and demand support for change.

I am a senior researcher in mobility governance at the Transport Studies Unit of the University of Oxford. My research interests include toilet access within mobility systems. In a recent paper, I drew attention to the road safety benefits of toilets.

I argue that enhancing drivers’ reasonable and reliable access to toilets can yield road safety benefits in ways that are comparable to enforcing laws against drunk or fatigued driving.

I searched academic databases such as Scopus and reviewed several papers. I found that improving toilet access for drivers was rarely researched as a road safety strategy in Africa. But it can enhance safer driving by reducing driver distraction and other unsafe driving practices that lead to road traffic crashes.

Road traffic crash losses in Africa are immense. Not long ago, the African Union was lamenting that they drain an estimated 2 per cent of its member states’ GDP annually. Bringing the problem under control will require investing in a wide range of interventions, including unconventional ones – such as making it easy for drivers to “go” while on the road.

Road safety benefits of toilets

Driving while pressed for the bathroom can be a torturous experience and a significant distraction. It could make drivers a danger to themselves and other road users by diverting their attention away from the road and traffic conditions. The physical urgency can affect their judgment and reaction to dangerous situations.

The distraction and the urgency can make the driver impatient, and inclined to start speeding, tailgating, or trying reckless manoeuvres to get to the nearest place where they can ease themselves.

Research has shown that people who cannot urinate when their bladder is full experience cognitive or attention impairment that is equivalent to staying awake for 24 hours.

The cognitive deterioration associated with the extreme urge to void is also equivalent to having a blood alcohol concentration level of 0.05 per cent. This is equivalent to or exceeds the blood alcohol concentration limits that Tunisia (0.05 per cent); Sudan and Mauritania (0 per cent); Morocco (0.02 per cent); Mali (0.03 per cent), Madagascar (0.04 per cent), and other African countries impose on drivers.

All this suggests that driving while pressed for the bathroom is as dangerous as drunk or fatigued driving. It also implies that enhancing access to toilets can yield road safety benefits comparable to enforcing laws against drunk or fatigued driving.

Toilets should be integrated within road developments and mobility systems.

Time to invest in toilet access within mobility systems

For starters, governments on the continent can build more public toilets. Africa is one of the key locations of global toilet poverty. The World Health Organisation says that some 779 million people on the continent do not have reasonable and reliable access to adequate, safe and clean toilets.

Building more public toilets can help address general toilet poverty on the continent as well as in the context of mobility.

Refreshingly, in Ghana for example, private developers are investing in rest stops along highways. These social road transport infrastructures serve as places for commuters to relax, access goods and services, and socialise during their journey break.

They often have toilets that travellers pay to access. Governments can explore ways to support these private provisions to expand and become more affordable.

Rest stops are often located on the outskirts, however. Most drivers and other road users operate in cities. When in need of a toilet while out and about, some drivers and other urban commuters are likely to use the toilet facilities available in fuel stations, hotels, restaurants, banks, coffee shops, hair salons, and other establishments in cities.

Not much is known about their cost, safety, cleanliness and location, or the embarrassment associated with using them. Researchers will have to investigate these issues and share the findings with the public.

When more people are aware of the issues, there could be a shift in thinking to demand and support better access to toilets as part of mobility policy.

The author is Senior Research Associate, University of Oxford.