Write an article suitable for publication in one of your national dialies discussing the vandalistion of publuic facilites on your country and its effects.

Answer Details

Format note: This is a newspaper article, so it needs a title, the writer's name, an engaging introduction, well-organised body paragraphs discussing both the problem and its effects, and a firm conclusion, in a formal register.

THE MENACE OF VANDALISM OF PUBLIC FACILITIES

By Halima Sani

Across our country today, a shameful and destructive habit is on the rise. Street lights are ripped from their poles, manhole covers are stolen, railway tracks are dug up, transformers are stripped of their cables, and pipelines are broken open. This deliberate destruction of public property, known as vandalism, has become a national plague, and its effects on the lives of the people are grave.

Public facilities are provided at enormous cost for the benefit of all. Yet vandals, driven by greed or sheer wickedness, destroy them to sell the parts as scrap or to steal what they contain. Water pipes are broken, electric cables and transformers are carted away, public telephones and traffic lights are smashed, and even hospital and school equipment is not spared.

The effects of this menace are far-reaching. In the first place, vandalism causes great economic loss. Enormous sums of public money that could have built schools, hospitals and roads are diverted every year to repair or replace what vandals have destroyed. A nation that must constantly rebuild the same facilities can never make real progress.

Secondly, vandalism endangers lives. When vandals break open petroleum pipelines, the leaking fuel often catches fire, and hundreds of innocent people are burnt to death in the resulting explosions. Stolen manhole covers leave gaping death traps on the roads, and the theft of railway parts has led to deadly train derailments.

Thirdly, vandalism disrupts essential services and inflicts hardship on citizens. The destruction of transformers and cables plunges whole communities into darkness. The vandalising of water pipes deprives families of clean water and breeds disease. Damaged roads, bridges and communication lines paralyse business and daily life.

Finally, vandalism scares away investors and dents the image of the nation, for no one wishes to invest where property is not safe.

To end this menace, government must provide stiff punishment for offenders, protect facilities with security and technology, and create jobs to reduce the poverty that tempts many into crime. Above all, citizens must see public property as their own and report vandals promptly. Only then can we protect the facilities on which our comfort and progress depend.