Don identifies impediments to environmental health practice

Amadi, a professor of public health and a specialist in environmental health and safety in the Department of the Public Health Technology said this yesterday at the 25th inaugural lecture of the institution titled: “Environmental Health: The dynamics, Application, Implications and the Way forward in Nigeria Health Care Delivery.”
He regretted that the situation has resulted into the colossal waste of resources, lack of enforcement, as well as poor implementation of programmes.
He said that less than half of 170 million Nigerians use sanitary latrines for defecation, meaning that more often than not the environment was littered with human excreta.
Professor Amadi described diarrhoea in children under the age of 5 as the second main cause of infant mortality after malaria.
The lecturer said that 200,000 children die annually due to diarrhoeal disease in Nigeria, meaning that a child dies every 3 minutes in the country as a result of poor sanitation conditions.
He mentioned other disease linked to poor sanitation to include scabies, typhoid fever, malaria, trachoma, ring worm and river blindness.
He condemned the placing of emphasis on provision of water supply by government without paying adequate attention to sanitation and hygiene.