Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) residing at Gongola camp in the FCT have appealed to the authorities to provide them potable water and toilets, saying they were constantly bitten by snakes while looking for water.

They made the appeal when a team of the National Task Group on Sanitation and some NGOs such as WaterAid and Action Against Hunger, visited the camp yesterday.

Mr Joseph Jauro, camp chairman, called for immediate intervention from relevant stakeholders, saying that was necessary to forestall reoccurrence.

He recounted numerous cases of diarrhoea and cholera and deaths among under-five children, saying they have been linked to poor sources of drinking water.

Jauro narrated the difficulty in getting water, adding that water vendors sold water for some persons in the community.

“The issue we have in this camp is malaria, cholera and snake bites, because of the bushes around, there are times when they crawl into your room. Two women have been bitten so far.

“We don’t have water and toilets here, some of us go to the bushes around. There are times that we buy water – one 20 litres of water is sold for N20.

“There are times we do not have money to buy water so we end up going to the stream to fetch the water.

“We want government to help us, to alleviate our sufferings in this camp, how can we call ourselves Nigerians when we do not have the basic necessities of life’’, he said.

Earlier, Mrs Chizoma Opara, an official of the National Task Group on Sanitation noted that the Federal Government was working with some stakeholders to pass the hand washing message round.

She said the visit to IDP camps was one of the activities to commemorate the 2018 Global Hand Washing Day, with the theme, ‘Clean Hands, a recipe for health’.

She said hand washing was one of the avenues to break the cycle of transmission of diseases, adding that the group was carrying out hygiene messages to eight IDP camps in the FCT.

“We are aware of the large number of vulnerable persons in the camps, which is why we are carrying the hand washing messages to them.’’