From Leo Nzwanke, Lafia
The Nasarawa State Government has applauded the people of the state for obeying the Presidential directive on open defecation.
This was disclosed by the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Musa Ibrahim, while briefing newsmen in Lafia after the June edition of the state’s monthly environmental sanitation exercise today.
He said ”almost all new houses and public buildings being built in the state now have toilets facilities in compliance with the policy of the government to end open defecation by 2025.”
He further said that the ministry has set up machineries to supervise existing households and ensure each house has toilets facilities and those without it must make provision.”
Musa explained that the people of the state are complying substantially with the team from the government deployed to all communities in the 13 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
He however, expressed worries over the attitudes of few others who still defecates openly and threatened to sanction anyone caught in the act.
“We are collaborating with traditional rulers and other stakeholders to intensify sensitization against open defecation,” he said.
In the area of Clearing of drains, the Commissioner also commended the citizens of the state for clearing their drains and attributed the total absence of flooding in the state so far to the proactive attitudes of the public and measures taken by the government.
Ibrahim added that the government had recently inaugurated flood early warning equipment at Umaisha community in Toto Local Government Area to help in averting flooding.
He noted that the equipment would alert the relevant agencies of Government on likely flooding to enable actions to be taken before it occurs.
“We are currently training staff of the ministry on how to operate the machine for the benefit of the state,” he said.
The environmental boss urge the the general public to always keep their environment clean to protect themselves against outbreaks of diseases.
The commissioner however used the opportunity to appealed to leaders of organised Labour to suspend the ongoing strike action in the overall interest of the development of the state.