Wherever there is a flash toilet, there must be a sewer line and this does not make users of flash toilets any safer than those who go to the bushes to answer nature’s call.  In Uganda  only the  well-to-do who live in decent urban houses have flash toilets, otherwise, the majority of Ugandans either use pit latrines or simply go behind tall grasses or ant hill mounds to ease themselves.

Image via Wikipedia

 In a rather shocking incident in one of the suburbs of my city recently, a rich woman nearly lost her life in the most unexpected way. She found a huge Puff Adder coiled in her toilet closet. Her and the entire family survived being killed by this highly poisonous snake mainly because they had kept the toilet closet closed and that there was enough light in the toilet. Secondly, there was no member of the family with bowel emergency like a running stomach which tends to make sufferers plunge themselves onto toilet seats without being critically conscious of their environment.

In this particular incident, the lady had approached the toilet room in a relaxed manner. She was still trying to position the toilet tissue in the right place when she noted some disturbances inside the toilet closet itself. Something was splashing menacingly in the water within the closet  and this made her to postpone the toileting business and instead invite her husband to the scene.

The husband used a metal bar to raise the toilet closet cover and to their disbelief, they were welcomed by a huge Puff Adder that was looking at them shyly as if begging them to free it from its captivity. It  rolled over to floor and lay on its belly looking very exhausted. 

The wild life authorities were invited to handle the snake, but not before it had caused an early morning commotion in this family and the entire neighborhood because, a snake in a closet is not some news anyone can ignore.

It was later learnt that the puff adder had got into the sewer line somehow and followed it upto the toilet closet of this family. I know this could have been an unlikely incident in the developed world, but it can not be ruled out completely because, like I noted earlier, where there is sewer, there will always be a sewer line and  this has the potential of inviting the most unexpected visitors to the family.