The Registrar, Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORCON), Dr Dominic Abonyi, has disclosed that sanitation should not be taken lightly in view of recent outbreak of diseases in some states.
Dr Abonyi stated this recently in Abuja while speaking to journalists in his office on the state of environmental health across the country in view of the Lassa fever epidemic recorded in some parts of the country.
He urged Nigerians to be conscious of their environment because diseases could appear at any time and place, saying, “You can contract a carrier and you can equally contract an active case.”
According to him, every Nigerian should think sanitation, act sanitation, live sanitation and teach sanitation, adding that the presence of risks was dependent on the people’s predisposition to act right at every time.
Dr Abonyi, however, lauded the Federal Government for assisting the council in offering technical assistance across the country in some selected schools by giving quality training models for enhanced capacity building.
“The council is committed to producing quality manpower and increasing advocacy at all levels; at local level, state and federal levels,” he added.
On fines, Dr. Abonyi noted that public health laws are a little obsolete but not ineffective.
He said the problem of enforcement was that going through the legal processes of charging somebody who has abused the environment through the litigation processes encumbered the processes.
He hinted that the Environmental Health Control Bill. The National Assembly passed recently, would address the seeming aging situation of the regional laws to upgrade the sanitary laws into present day condition of imposing adequate fines on those who insult the environment.
Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
