Summary: Liberian economist Samuel Jackson claims that 60% of Liberians practice open defecation, but a result of a fact check by reviewing relevant sources shows that his statement is incorrect. Data from the 2022 Liberia Population and Housing Census, the World Bank, and USAID indicate that approximately 35% of Liberians, or 1.8 million people, engage in open defecation.
On August 7, during a discussion on Spoon FM, Samuel Jackson, a Liberian economist, asserted that 60% of Liberians practice open defecation. Jackson made the claim while suggesting reforms to Liberia’s mineral industry to better serve citizens.
What is Open Defecation?
Open defecation refers to the practice of defecating in open spaces such as fields, forests, bushes, bodies of water, or other outdoor areas rather than using a toilet, according to the Joint Monitoring Programme led by the WHO and UNICEF.
The Claim
Jackson’s exact words were: “60% of us are defecating outside, we ‘popping’ outside, and in Monrovia, they’re putting in the plastic…”
Listen to the claim here:
Rating Justification
To fact-check this statement, we first contacted Mr. Jackson to provide the source of the data he used to make the statement.
In a back-to-back interaction via Facebook messenger, Mr. Jackson said the data he cited was derived by himself as a “Socio-economist.” According to him, the figure he announced is “much higher” considering “the more than 80 percent open defecation in the rural areas”, claiming that “the 35 percent mentioned in other reports is totally “unrealistic.”
However, we reviewed the 2022 Liberia Population and Housing Census Report. On page 17 of the report, we found that 32% or 1.6 million Liberians do not have any toilet facilities and are using bushes, beaches, and riversides to defecate.
It is important to note that key findings on page 16 of the report show that a total of 1,157,514 (one million, one hundred fifty-seven thousand, five hundred fourteen) households were recorded to be in Liberia with an average size of 4.4 people. Thirty-two percent of this number, multiplied by the average size of 4.4 inhabitants, will be 1.6 million people – about 1.6 million of the population practice open defecation.
Meanwhile, a 2022 report by the World Bank regarding people practicing open defecation globally shows that 35.2% of Liberians still practice open defecation.
Also, we viewed the 2021 Liberia Sanitation Market Assessment Report produced by USAID. It states that about 1.8 million people, or 35% of Liberia’s population practice open defecation.
Also, the JMP 2022 report found that Liberia is one of 13 countries in the world where one in four people practice open defecation. Ths means, 1.325 million (25%) people out of the 5.3 million population do open defecation.
Please note that this figure is less than the LIGIS census statistics because of the methodology used to gather the JMP data.
Conclusion
According to data from Liberia’s Statistics House (LISGIS), the World Bank, and USAID, about 35% or 1.8 million Liberians practice open defecation.
