Environment
THE Nasarawa state government has restated its commitment to ensuring full compliance with the monthly sanitation in Karu Local Government Area.
Mr Hosea Emmanuel, Special Adviser to Gov. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa state on Solid Minerals and Mining made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Karu.
NAN reports that Gov. Sule had in August 2019 introduced the monthly sanitation exercise with a view to ensuring a clean healthy, and hygienic environment in the state.
Emmanuel who doubles as the state government’s Sanitation Enforcement Leader for the monthly exercise led a team of environmental and security officials round parts of the local government area to ensure compliance.
Commercial activities at the Masaka market, some pharmacies, a gambling shop, restaurants, road side shops and some petrol stations, among others were closed while fines were meted out to defaulters.
The governor’s aide described the exercise as a success given the enforcement achieved and awareness created among residents who claimed to be ignorant of the sanitation programme.
He also lauded the compliance rate which he put at 50 percent and admitted that compared to when the sanitation exercise began in 2019, there has been improvement in terms of compliance.
“Initially on sanitation days, you find out that all businesses are open and they don’t even recognise that it’s a sanitation day. But today you find out that on the average most of the business premises were closed,” he said.
“Eventually our belief and goal as an administration is to get 100 per cent compliance but for now compliance is about 50 percent but we are making progress because it is a work in progress.
“Since it is a work in progress, I strongly believe that as we continue to observe this exercise and do the monitoring and enforcement, eventually everybody will come to the realisation on the need to comply after all it is for their own good,” he said.
He explained that the September exercise was more focused on the Masaka market because of the large number of people patronising the market and with the view to closing it down on sanitation days so that the people visiting the market will be forced to stay home to adhere to the exercise in their homes. (NAN)
A.I
Tags: GOV. Abdullahi Sule Mr Hosea Emmanuel
