FG: Abuse of Environment Increasing Spread of Diseases

The Federal Government has linked the rising cases of epidemics and diseases in the country to pollution and excessive abuse of the environment by citizens and other industrial activities.
Minister of Environment, Mrs Laurentia Mallam stated this during the commencement of the 2014 National Environmental Sanitation Day Commemoration with the theme, "My Environment-My Health".

At the ceremony, which took place in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, Mallam stated that it is in line with government’s commitment to collaborative efforts that usher in sanitation governance in the country.
The minister said the National Environmental Sanitation Day 2014, which was celebrated outside Abuja, is to allow the federal government to thoroughly and completely fight the scourge of unhygienic environmental conditions and practices and their attendant problems through a participatory process.

Mallam stated that the theme was carefully selected to highlight the fact that "most of the common illnesses our people suffer such as malaria, cholera, typhoid fever, scabies, etc occur as a result of poor environmental sanitation practices.
"It is therefore a wake-up call and an opportunity to all Nigerians to reflect on our general attitude to personal hygiene, environmental sanitation in our homes, neighbourhood, communities and public places and work towards ensuring improved hygienic and healthy environment," she said.

She stressed that the cross-cutting dimension of environmental sanitation issues and the magnitude of the problem facing the nation calls for collective responsibility from all across the country.
"It is in line with that, that an Inter-ministerial Committee was inaugurated at the federal level as part of the institutional arrangement for ensuring effective participation of all stakeholders in the implementation of the National Environmental Sanitation Policy and guidelines," she added.

According to the minister, the transformation agenda of the president was aimed at  "poverty reduction, economic empowerment, sustainable development, environmental protection and conservation of natural resources would be greatly undermined if effective and efficient frameworks for tracking the myriads of environmental sanitation problems confronting us today are not put in place.”
Mallam further stated that there is an urgent need to recognise that many environmental threats to human health are trans-boundary diseases, also include international problems of climate change, ozone layer depletion, trans-boundary air and water pollution, acid precipitation, loss of biodiversity, desertification and deforestation."

"The prevailing morbidity and mortality profile in the country is largely ascribed to the high incidence of infectious and parasitic diseases resulting from unsafe sanitation with heavy toll on human population in the cities and to a larger extent on the vulnerable groups in our rural communities. These environmental challenges are daunting, and we are yet to ensure adequate provision of safe water and basic sanitation,” she said further.

She, however, observed that environmental health problems could be effectively brought under control by instituting effective and efficient collaborative measures at federal, state and local government levels through the development and empowerment of environmental health units nationwide.

Governor of Kogi State, Capt. Idris Wada said in furtherance of the objective of having a healthy, safe, pleasant and sustainable environment, the sensitisation programme was significant particularly at this period of the year when a lot of unhealthy materials are moved around and dispersed indiscriminately as a result of rain fall and the attendant debris and storm water that flow along with rain water.

"As a state that came out of a debilitating flood disaster recently, "we have carried out a post-disaster audit, which revealed that indiscriminate dumping of refuse, blocked drains and sub-standard drainages aid flooding. Consequently, we have consciously desilted drainages in Lokoja metropolis and we have also embarked on continuous sensitisation of the public to the dire consequences of unwholesome and unsanitary practices," Wada said.

The governor explained: "we are also starting a waste recycling plant to be established in Lokoja by Cana Resources Ltd. A partnership agreement between Kogi State and Cana Resources Ltd. and by the time this project is on stream, we would be recording the dual advantage of not only having a standard waste management system, but an environmentally-friendly and compliant state capital.

"There is no doubt that other environmental challenges like pollution obviously lie ahead, however, with our proactive disposition, the enlistment of the technical expertise of investors in environmental enterprise and the continuous engagement with the Federal Ministry of Environment and other stakeholders, we are confident that we can put all these challenges under effective control.”