LASG cautions residents over open defecation

LASG cautions residents over open defecation

Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, has urged the Federal Government to initiate campaigns against open defecation.

The governor lamented that the country should have been excluded from the list of countries still battling the polio virus, adding that the disease would have been contained if every state takes the campaign against the virus seriously.

He said the state had not, in the last five years, recorded any polio case.

“As long as other parts of the country still have this virus and they can move from their state to Lagos, then residents of Lagos remain at the risk of getting infected.

 “The indiscriminate dumping of refuse and open defecation must stop in Lagos and in Nigeria. We must take this seriously. We must henceforth stop open defecation in our communities. It is something that we must put an end to if we really want to put an end to polio in the country.

“Once one has the virus by infection, if that person defecates in public, it is hazardous. What we must understand is that faeces attract flies. After a fly has perched on the faeces, if the same fly that had perched on the faeces perches on people’s food, what they normally do is to chase it off and eat the food. Sometimes, they do not even know that flies have perched on their food,” Fashola said.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Dr Yewande Adeshina, said the state had surpassed the target given to the state by the Federal Government.

SOURCE: Tribune