All cities and towns of this state shall have the power to construct, repair, and regulate public wells and cisterns and to compel the screening of all wells, cisterns, and other places in the city or town in which water is collected where mosquitoes or other insects of like kind are apt to propagate. Such cities and towns shall also have the power to compel the proper setting of gutters so as to prevent stagnant water therein and to require weeds to be cut or other things or conditions favorable to the harboring of such insects to be abated or to do such work at the expense of the owner, the same to be a lien on the property to be collected as any other debts are collected or liens enforced.