Sanitation: Reintroduction of exercise avert recurrent flood,epidemic, in Nasarawa.

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From Francis Nansak,Lafia

Still wondering what can be attributed the present administration of Engineer Sule’ of about two years as governor of Nasarawa state?

Among many unnoticed projects, programmes and development which has set the state moving forward ,is the reintroduction of the monthly Environmental sanitation,which has help reduced natural hazard,health deficiency and also improved social cohesion .

Since the environmental sanitation programme was relaunched in Nasarawa state,flooded areas,due to blocked drainages,waste indiscriminately dumped and cases of open defecation has drastically came under control as failure to adhere to environmental law is now punishable,through a mobile court,with the full authority to prosecute offenders.

Looking ahead to reposition the monthly sanitation exercise,the commissioner incharge of the ministry of environment and Natural resources,Honourable Ibrahim Musa disclosed that so far the monthly Environmental sanitation ,apart from ensuring that citizens abide by the law,it has also help in curbing indiscriminate dumping of refuse ,free water ways and a clean environment.

The commissioner who was on ground to monitor the exercise on Saturday to comomorate the end of 2020 environmental sanitation ,with one last one in the month of December,said the reintroduction of the exercise , especially for the year under review,with the COVID-19 outbreak,did a lot of magic to most of the public places.

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He said, diseases outbreak ,like Lassa fever,malaria fever and other epidemics ,that was recorded in the state at an alarming rate amongst families due to dirty environments,was also tackled.

According to the commissioner ” You know this environmental sanitation exercise today is more like comomorating the end of the year,where in our recent past experiences,we evaluate,rewards and enforced the law.

” We evaluate in the sense that we needed to ensure compliances,just like in order local government,which to a large extent has been very encouraging,there is compliances ,unlike our past experiences,environmental sanitation should not be mistaken to be all about stopping vehicles on the roads.

“And aside from ensuring that the environment are kept clean,we have been conducting sensitisation and enlightenment campaign to ensured that all the houses have toilet facilities,as well as motor parks,which is line with the recent pronouncement of Mr President against open defecation.

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“By this singular act of ensuring compliances,we have been able to mitigate the spread of coronavirus in the state,by ensuring the provisions of hands washing facilities and you will recalled that the state through the directive of his Excellency,fumigated our schools before the reopening order from the federal government,so we have achieved a lot of successes with the introduction of environmental sanitation,which is one of the modest achievements by this administration of our amiable governor, engineer Abdullahi Sule'” The commissioner stated.

Musa Ibrahim also disclosed that the Federal Government has given approval for the establishment of a Waste Recycling Plant In Nasarawa state in a bid to ensure a healthy living for residents of the state and to turn the wastes into other products that can be beneficial to the people.

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Meanwhile, the Chief Prosecuting Officer, Mobile Court in the state, Alhaji Abubakar Muhammed told journalists that for the year under review,a total number of 112 sanitation defaulters were prosecuted out which 9 were jailed

He added that 62 vehicles so far in the year were also impounded and that through the exercise #480,000 was the total fine for those prosecuted was generated.

While for the last Saturday sanition exercise 35 people were arrested and prosecuted for violating the sanitation laws while 27 vehicles and tricycles were also impounded.

“Their offenses ranges from violating the sanitation regulations and we gave a good notice before the sanitation day but these set of persons did not comply.

“We assigned about 86 Environmental Health Officers to go house to house to carryout evaluation in order to know if the residents are cleaning their environments which was how we were able arrest these defaulters”, he said.

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