The Honourable Minister of Environment Dr. Muhammad Mahmood Abubakar on Thursday presented to the public Guidelines for Environmental Health practices and Standards Monitoring Committee in order to make sure that those habitats where rodents and all other vectors exist are eliminated.
The Honourable Minister, Dr. Mahmood Abubakar said all the states of the Federation have been mapped out, including motor parks and other habitats that provide avenue for them to exist have also been mapped out.
The Minister who was represented at the presentation of the Guidelines by the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Environment Dr. Bakari Wadinga posited that this guideline was a retooling for effectiveness, saying “we have that experience, and we are all out to make sure that this time around we succeed and you know once it comes to coordination on such issues of national importance, every other person is on board”
Speaking earlier, the representative of the Registrar, Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON), Dr. Baba Yakubu Mohammed stated that the Guideline was in line with the Ministerial directives that the Environmental Health personnel should be on board to contain and to identify key indicators and the risk factors that are responsible for harbouring these emerging and re-emerging diseases.
According to Dr. Baba Yakubu “it is not only Lassa Fever or corona Virus, we are faced with a lot of challenges of emerging and re-emerging disease” he enthused.
He disclosed that the Environmental Health workforce is ever ready and that there were more than 35,000 workforces which was why the Ministry, the Honorable Minister and the Permanent Secretary organized this event to strengthen the preventive health of the Nigerian population.
On the requirement of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr. Baba Yakubu Mohammed said under normal circumstances , the WHO requirement is one Environmental Health Officers to 8000 population and that the number is inadequate while promising that in view of this constraint, the Council would be able to make an impact and see how the Nigerian Environment Can be protected.
Signed:
Kehinde A. Openibo
Head, (Press and Public Communications)
For: Registrar
