The Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) and its Ogun state counterpart, on Tuesday, held a sensitisation workshop against open defecation along the Lagos/Ogun state corridor.

The sensitisation programme started at OPIC inward Lagos to the end of Otedola bridge.

Speaking at the event, Dr Tunde Ajayi, the general manager, LASEPA, described open defecation as a problem that had bedevilled communities globally.

Mr Ajayi said the health implication of open defecation included cholera, adding that the act demeaned the dignity of the human person.

“We think that this kind of thing should not be found around Lagos.

“We are instituting an enforcement protocol such that nobody would defecate from OPIC till the end of Otedola Bridge.

“Nobody should come to the middle of the road to defecate.

“In our enforcement protocol, we are engaging those who run public toilets around here to stretch them so that they can run the night shift,” Mr Ajayi said.

He added that anyone caught defecating on the road median would be made to engage in community service.

Also speaking, Dr Oluwadare Kehinde, special adviser to the Ogun state governor on environmental protection agency, called for the provision of the right infrastructure to tackle open defecation.

Mr Kehinde said that part of the agenda of the government was to revolutionise road infrastructure across the state.

“For us to tackle the problem, there is the need to tackle it from the level of infrastructure.

“There is the need to foster the collaboration between Lagos and Ogun states by implementing the development plan signed by both states in 2021,” Mr Kehinde said.

In his remark, Taiwo Abiodun, a representative of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Ojodu branch, said they were aware of the danger posed by open defecation around the Lagos/Ogun corridor.

Mr Abiodun said that most of the open defecation was carried out at night.

“Part of the recommendations we made to LASEPA is for the provision of solar-powered street lights at night.

“In the interim, touch lights can be provided for us to use in policing the highways against open defecation.

“We agreed that 30 men will be engaged from among us to secure the roads at night against people defecating on the road median,” Mr Abiodun said.

Aside from the awareness creation, the road median was thoroughly washed with water to get excreta out of the pavement.

(NAN)