Lagos Assembly Gives Guidelines For Public Toilets

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The Lagos State House of Assembly is currently drawing up guidelines for the building and management of public toilets in the state.

Chairman of the House Committee on Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Omotayo Oduntan, who disclosed this at a meeting with officials of the state Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, said the state lawmakers were concerned about the poor state of toilets in the state.

She explained that as a result, the state House of Assembly had decided in favour of common guidelines for the building of public toilets and how they should be managed.

Oduntan, whose committee visited most of the public toilets in the state and presented a report on the visit to the House, told the participants that the members were fully aware of what the residents of the state faced in the use of such toilets.

“Some of the toilets had been turned into residential places, meat stalls, Indian hemp smoking joints and places for commercial food vendor to sell hot rice among other uses,” she said.

Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mrs. Riskat Akiode, in her contribution, said there was need to identify the toilet operators through a register that could be found at the Ministry of the Environment to aid the monitoring of toilets in the state.

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Another participant at the forum and official of the ministry, Mr. Oluwatoyin Onisarotu, explained that there were two agreements between the ministry and the operators.

He said the first was that the operators would build, operate and transfer while the other is for them to build, operate and own.

Some of the guidelines deliberated upon included the establishment of a monitoring team to be set up by the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and the Ministry of the Environment.

The participants also agreed that public toilets should be built in markets, motor and recreational parks. They also urged state ministries to put their toilets in proper shape with soap, air freshener, disinfectant and a stand-by cleaner purposely for the facility.

Oduntan enjoined members of the public to send their contributions to the House to enhance the guidelines.

—Eromosele Ebhomele

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