With over 30 per cent of Kano population defecating in the open space, Kano state government has decided to enact a law that will ensure the arrest, prosecution and incarceration of offenders.
The state Commissioner of Environment, Dr. Ibrahim Kabiru Getso who briefed journalists on Tuesday during a Press Conference to mark the World Toilet Day (WTD), said the bill will soon be forwarded to the state House of Assembly.
According to him, over 16 mobile courts are also on board arresting and trying people caught defecating in the open space.
Getso who described open defecation as worrisome and hazardous, noted that Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s administration remains committed to addressing the sanitation challenges in the state, including open defecation, pointing out that the government is working round the clock to ensure that Kano state becomes open-defecation-free in the nearest future.
He added that in a bid to discourage open defecation, the state government recently constructed over 30 public conveniences, stating that the 2020 budget also made provision for the construction of more public conveniences.
He further listed efforts by the Ganduje administration to ensure clean environment to include provision of funds for monthly sanitation exercise, upgrade of training institutions for environmental health officers and provision of equipment for sanitation.
He added that the Ganduje administration also employed 1, 000 sanitation vanguards to improve sanitation in the environment, regulation of construction of private convenience, sanitary inspection and monitoring of private and public conveniences, construction and leasing of 24 owned public conveniences, procurement of temporary toilets for deployment and use during public functions, public enlightenment on open defecation, provision and regulation of gully emptier services to the public, among others.
According to him, “human excreta may contain many types of pathogens. When these pathogens are introduced into the environment and some can remain infectious for long period of time and under certain conditions, they may be able to replicate in the environment. The presence of pathogens in the environment presents a potential threat to human health.
“Human excreta and lack of adequate personal and domestic hygiene have been implicated in the transmission of many infectious diseases, including Cholera, Typhoid, Hepatitis, Poliomyelitis and helminthiasis.”
