Efforts by the Lagos State Government to control vector-borne diseases, especially Lassa Fever, is experiencing a slow down due to the number of people inhabiting the markets in the metropolis, a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) investigation has revealed.
A Correspondent NAN who monitored the deratisation of the some markets under the government’s collaboration with Phosgard Fumigants Ltd., reports that the development was witnessed in some of the markets.
NAN reports that the deratisation of the markets was launched by the Lagos State Government in October 2016, as a follow up to the government’s move to rid the state of rats which transmit Lassa fever.
To ensure that the project worked, the government introduced a bounty, “Kill Rats, Make More Money in Lagos’’.
Also the bounty is to ensure that the residents embraced the eradication of rats from the homes, markets and streets.
Under the deratisation, Phosgard is to buy up the rats killed in an area at a token for proper disposal since the dead rat could still be a potent harbinger of death.
NAN reports that for the exercise which usually holds at night to be carried, the vector control workers ensured that nobody was in the markets before that fumigate and bait for the rats.
But it was observed that because many people lived in the markets, it took time to get them out before the exercise.
Contacted, the Coordinator of the Vector Control Programme, Mr Oluwasegun Benson, said that it had been observed that many of the markets did not have adequate lavatories for the occupants.
Benson, the Managing Director, Phosgard Fumigants, said it had become necessary to provide such amenities in view of the high level of human waste in the markets which, he noted, posed a danger to lives.
He told NAN on Tuesday in Lagos that there was need for government to build adequate bathrooms and toilets to reduce open defecation that would create breeding grounds for dangerous vectors.
“Strict measures should be put in place to protect the market environment from human pollution through provision of adequate facilities and vector control,’’ he said.
He also urged the government to discourage people from sleeping in markets because of the hazards it portend.
“Most open markets in Lagos are not designed to have lavatory or sewage system to support people sleeping in market; as such, it becomes a risk to the traders and their customers.
“People dwelling in the markets can also hinder environmental sanitation operations, especially the ongoing fumigation exercise, as well as expose themselves to risk during the vector control exercises,’’ he said.
Benson urged the traders to adhere to best practices while storing food items as a way of boosting good standard of living.
He urged customers who consume the food items to be wary of the kind of markets they patronise, especially hygiene-insensitive markets and those indifferent to the vector control programme.
He applauded the Lagos State Government for its efforts in the ongoing exercise in about 465 markets.
NAN also reports that so far 15 markets have been covered by the programme.
However, efforts to speak with the Commissioner for The Environment, Dr Babatunde Adejare was unsuccessful. (NAN)
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