NAN-AE-5
Defecation
By Sunday John
Lafia, Jan. 24, 2017 (NAN) Dr Ibrahim Alhassan, the Director of Public Health in the Nasarawa State Ministry of Health, said on Tuesday that the ministry would sanction any resident caught engaging in open defecation.
Alhassan told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lafia that the ministry was collaborating with other agencies to enforce the law on open defecation.
He also said that the ministry would be more proactive in enforcing the law in order to promote personnel and environmental hygiene while preventing outbreak of diseases.
The director, who said that open defecation exposes people to diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever, added:
“We are making efforts with the Department of Environmental Service to first of all create awareness among people on why they should refrain from open defecation.
“The sensitisation would be more in rural communities because we discovered that most people in rural areas are ignorant of the health implication of their actions.
“Based on the records before us, it was discovered that most houses in the village were built without toilet facilities because to the people in the villages, defecation in the bush is a normal thing.’’
He called on all house owners to ensure that there was provision for toilet facilities in order to complement the government’s efforts in ending open defecation. (NAN)
SDJ/OJO
=======
(Edited by Mufutau Ojo)