Group seeks stiffer laws, sanctions against open defecation

The Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Development Awareness (CESDA) has called on the Federal Government to come up with stiffer laws and sanctions against the practice of open defecation in the country.

CESDA Executive Director, Olusola Babalola, made the call during a stakeholders dialogue meeting held yesterday with the original Inhabitants of Abuja.

The event focused on awareness creation of Water and Sanitation, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in the territory.

Babalola said some of the laws are obsolete and sanctions against environmental offences could be as low as N100, thus, the weak punishment is not strong enough to deter people from polluting the environment.

He advocated better enforcement stressing that open defecation often contributes to waterborne diseases, and diarrhoea, amidst poor yet abandoned health facilities.

Babalola, however, advised increase in budgetary allocations to the agencies of government responsible for environmental protection.

The group, he noted, would advocate good environmental hygiene.

In his remarks, the Chairman, FCT Traditional Council of Chief, HRH Adamu Baba Yinusa, said during the last administration, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) was integrated into the activities of the FCT administration including the provision of toilets.

Yinusa, represented by Abubakar Sadiq said relevant agencies within the territory should have improved on the gesture to ensure better provision of water and sanitation facilities.

Other participants at the meeting were officials from the National Orientation Agency, the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB).

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