Plateau to prosecute owners of houses without toillets

A directive has been dispensed by the Plateau government to home owners to provide toilets in their houses for tenants.

Mrs Sarah Yusuf, the Commissioner for Environment in the state issued the directive on Tuesday while on a visit to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Namu as part of activities to mark the “World Toilet Day”

The IDPs camp is in Qua’an Pam Local Government Area of the state.

Yusuf said that any landlord, who failed to provide toilets in their houses would be prosecuted, adding that the state government would no longer tolerate a situation where people went outside their houses to defecate due to the lack of toilets in their houses.

“We will no longer toy with the issue of sanitation, especially with the growing rate of population in the state.

“This is a warning to all landlords, who after building houses, fail to make available toilets in their houses to begin to construct them or face the penalty from the state government.

“It has been discovered that defecating outside indiscriminately constitutes a serious danger to public health in most communities like we had in Namu town, where cholera epidemic broke out last month.

“No matter the clean water a community enjoys, as long as some people within the community defecate outside, the water can be contaminated by flies.

“It can also be contaminated by the hands of the people in such community,” Yusuf said.

“Health is wealth”, and to live a healthy life, we must begin to learn to keep our environments clean, sanitation exercise must be observed within the stipulated days.”

She therefore, advised the people to keep a clean environment and always ensure that they washed their fruits and vegetables as well as their hands, before eating them.

“During the cholera outbreak, Namu community lost 12 lives, which is sad because it is something that could have been avoided if our environments were always kept clean, that is why the issue of toilets should be treated as a serious matter.”

Any landlord who failed to build toilets in their houses will be prosecuted by the authority accordingly, she said.