Abuja – Mrs Amina Mohammed, Minister, Federal Ministry of Environment, on Thursday advised Environmental Health Officers (EHO) to ensure that they lived by example to promote environmental sanitation in the county.
Mohammed gave this advice while presenting the Environmental Health Practices Guidelines developed by the Environmental Health Officers Registration Council (EHORECON) at a retreat organised by the council in Abuja.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
theme of the retreat is: “Dissemination of Environmental Health Guidelines to Members of the Public.’’
The minister, who was represented by Mr Okulu Kehinde, Director of Special Duties in the ministry, said that living by example would also improve the environmental health professional practice.
“Environmental officers should live an exemplary life; they should live up to the expectation.
“They need to live by example because their role is very crucial; they need to be sure that any where they are they will represent the country in terms of sanitation and cleanliness.
“The officers should let the people know that it is always good to keep our environment clean by giving effective sensitisation to the public on the importance of sanitation,’’ she said.
Mohammed said that the environmental guidelines that were presented would help the officers to improve in their profession and give them focus while attending to their duties.
According to her, the ministry is also planning to recruit more environmental health officers across the country.
She added that the employment would improve environmental sanitation in the country and promote the health of Nigerians.
“There is a proposal already available by the ministry to recruit health officers.
“The move is already in the budget and the ministry is seriously working towards it, but I do not know how soon the approval will be given.
“The reason for the employment is because we have seen the importance and work of environmental officers; we have also noticed that the officers are very few across the country,’’ Mohammed said.
Speaking earlier, the Registrar of the council, Mr Dominic Abonyi, said that the guideline that was presented was developed by the council in 2014 and 2015.
He said that the guideline would bring about effective environmental sanitation practices in the country.
“These guidelines covered different aspects of our practices ranging from sanitary inspection of premises, waste management, pest control, ports sanitation to modalities for private sectors involvement in environmental health services.
“So, this retreat that we organised has offered us an opportunity to bring Managerial Health Environmental Profession and introduce the guidelines so that the officers will accept, disseminate and make use of it.
“In doing this, we would have almost reached the entire Nigeria in the management of sanitation through a uniformed high level practice,’’ Abonyi said.
He said that the council was committed to protecting the health of the people and the environment through professional practices.
According to him, the Federal Government (FG) has always made environmental health an important tool for the development of the nation.
Abonyi also commended the FG for its support in ensuring that the environmental officers were effective in the discharge of their duties. (NAN)
