THIS may not be the best time for dirty people who live in Lagos as the state government embarked on corporal punishment to check their excesses.As from now, anybody caught urinating or defecating in the open will serve the state's environmental non-custodian punishment. The punishment also extends to those who are fond of throwing dirt from moving cars and buses.According to the state Commissioner for Environment, Mr Tunji Bello, the government would compel such offenders to wash public toilets in full glare of the media. 'In addition, any car or bus in which refuse is thrown on the street will be used to carry refuse to dump sites for specified hours as punishment for the uncivilised conduct,' he said.The commissioner stated that markets where sanitation laws were not observed would be shut for three months to serve as deterrent to others.'Some people are reverting to the old habit of indiscriminate dumping of refuse and illegal street trading. We are now witnessing shameless defecation and urination in open places. We cannot continue like this,' Bello said.No doubt, Lagos State is clean under the present administration but its effort to maintain the culture has been a serious battle, perhaps, because of limited number of public toilet facilities and of course the refusal of some residents to comply with the rule.At present, many people still urinate on public walls, defecate on the bridges and garden while bus stops ooze out nauseating smell due to the clusters of human dung and urine in the place.It is a common view to see Lagos residents excreting in the gutter in broad day light without being questioned by passersby, except the officers of the Kick Against Indiscipl-ine (KAI) who had since ensured the enforcement of the law.Besides the fact that public toilet facilities are not adequate in the state, the available ones can only be used at a price. A Lagos resident pays between N20 and N50 to use public toilet facility in the metropolis, including the ones built inside the state secretariat, Alausa.Though, the commissioner for environment, Bello, said some of the facilities were owned by private individuals and that the one at the secretariat was commercialised to alleviate the poverty of some people.Most residents prefer urinating at the corner of a public building to paying between N20 and N50 at a public toilet. To them, the public toilet facilities are not well disinfected and could pose serious health hazard to them. Some also argued that they preferred to induce officers of the KAI who would be ready to compromise to use the bush instead of public toilet.According to a resident, Mr Sola Talabi, the best toilet facility is at fast food restaurant. He said, 'I will not mind to buy a roll of meat pie to use the toilet in a fast food restaurant instead of visiting the untidy public toilet facility." Talabi who is also a medical doctor said it could be unhealthy to visit public toilet in this part of the country, saying that, one could easily contact diseases such as gonorrhoea and syphilis.'Except it is extraordinarily clean, it is not advisable to enter any public toilet,' he said.Another resident, who simply identified herself as Yetunde, bemoaned people who arbitrarily defecated in the public as she described them as uncivilised human beings. 'I cannot imagine urinating in the public. God forbid! I can pay any amount to use a good toilet instead of degrading myself in the public,' she said.To her, using the bush or a hidden place as toilet is not the issue but the person behind the act who may have put herself into public ridicule. 'I totally support the non-custodian sentence for anybody who is found in the act."However, Mr. Yomi Olukotun expressed displeasure with the law, saying it could only work where government had provided enough toilet facilities. According to him, most areas in the state were polluted by miscreants who slept under the bridges and bus stops.'There are no enough toilet facilities for people to use. The ones that are available are not clean enough for convenience. I think government will need to do a good job in this area of building good toilet facilities to ensure that the law is effectively enforced,' he said.
Click here to read full news..
