LAGOS OUTLAWS 60 TO ONE TOILET APARTMENTS

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Some queue up for convenience




Emmanuel Thomas

November 30. 2015 – The Lagos State Government today threatened to seal off buildings with bad toilet facilities or substandard septic tanks in the metropolis.

Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Babatunde Adejare who read the riot act at a forum for sensitization and public awareness on environmental and health implications said the idea of a landlords letting out an apartment to about 60 tenants, using a toilet will no longer be tolerated.

Adejare emphasized that the government will no longer tolerate landlords with multi-room tenement to have one toilet, saying such buildings constitute environmental nuisance.

According to him, the management of 2.1billion litres of waste water generated by over 20 million Lagosians daily, with the attendant health and environmental implications is a task that necessitates the ongoing efforts.

“The law prescribes punishment for them. Now, KAI, environmental officers will be doing part of it. This is part of what they will be doing. We will come to enforce the law. A lot of things are abnormal in our environment, we won’t allow people to dispose refuse in the drainage. Imagine a landlord of twenty 25 rooms having a single toilet. He makes money from the building but cannot get toilet for the tenants. How much do people build toilet self? Since government doesn’t collect any money from landlords, they should use it to build toilet for their tenants.

“The idea of tenants queuing before they can use the toilet, will no longer be tolerated. Just imagine a 25 room apartment and over ten people live in each of the room. How can they cope with one toilet?”

The commissioner described the theme of the stakeholders forum entitled: “Waste water Management-Perfecting the Natural Practice”, as apt, adding that people should desist from digging their bore hole and well water close to the septic tank as such practices lead to epidemics.

“Your environment determines the kinds of the person you are. That’s why the development of a country is measured by how hygiene your environment is.”

Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Environment, Mr. Adeshina Onisarutu warned against discharging of waste effluents into the drains by some landlords.

“Many people erroneously think that once their waste is disposed into the drains, that is all. It is not so at all, we must take care of our environment at all times. Whatever we disposed wrongly will always come back to us.

“We have turned our environment, drainage channels to dump sites. Government spends huge resource to treat water that we drink. The lagoon and the sea are filled with dirts disposed by residents. This is not good for as people.”

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