Across the country, many states have been experiencing rains in the last few days. It is for this reason that a closer attention should be paid to personal hygiene. It is on this note that health officers and environmental activists have always stressed the need for such safe practices. Sanitarians have enjoined Nigerians on the need to take cognisance of their water source and look for means of having potable water. They have called on people with boreholes and well waters to engage in periodic tests, saying that whatever that is given to nature is what nature gives back. The Deputy Director, Water and Environmental Sanitary Department, Abeokuta South Local Government Area of Ogun State, Sanitarian Atinuke Daini, said over two billion people were living without access to safe water.
Sanitarian Daini urged Nigerians to preserve water in order to save millions of lives, noting that they should ensure proper sanitation of the little water they have around, saying that when they preserve water, they preserve life, and when they conserve it, they are saving a lot of lives. In the same vein, a Chief Environmental Health Officer, Sanitarian Afolabi Taiwo, said Nigerians should look for the means of purifying and making their waters awesome and safe for consumption, noting that water is a basic need of life. “Water has no enemy, water is the basic need of life, Nigerians should not wait for government to do all things for them”, he maintained. An Assistant Chief Environmental Health Officer, Sanitarian Tokunbo Oladehin, has enjoined Nigerians to save, preserve, conserve and keep water for the good of all.
“Nigerians should save water so that water can save them, preserve water so that water can preserve them, conserve water for water to conserve them”, he said. On his part, Sanitarian Saburi Ogunsolu, has stressed the importance of environmental sanitation, urging the government to stem the tide of indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the country. He maintained that waste must be generated where life exists, but that whenever the generated waste is not effectively managed, it may lead to indiscriminate dumping of waste. “Government at all levels have been providing the enabling environment, policy formulation and evaluation, but we need adequate cooperation from the service providers and members of the public for the policy formulated to make indiscriminate waste disposal to be effective”, he added.
Sanitarian Ogunsolu, who is the immediate past National Vice President, Environmental Health Officers’ Association of Nigeria, Southwest, said the Ogun State government had formulated an effective and relevant policy to address the issue of waste management while calling on the people to embrace the content of the policy. “As we have an increasing population, all arrangements should be made with adequate sanitary facilities to cope with the ever-increasing population; and we must integrate schemes and programmes that will accommodate our development as a nation, and also to consistently enlighten our people not to obey sanitary rules and regulations based on fear”, he stressed. He also urged Nigerians to effectively consider what would be the medical cost, if their health is overstretched and broken, noting that all hands must be on deck to ensure that the environment is not only clean, but that healthy living should be the watchword, as the rainy season is fast approaching.
Meanwhile, some environmental practitioners have called on the people to desist from bush burning. According to them, wild fires do not just start spontaneously, but that somebody must have kindled the fire, saying such a practice has many disadvantages than the advantages. Mr. Oluseye Ogunlami, said there are various kinds of ecosystems in the soil that would be affected negatively by bush burning, and that no agriculturist, from the scientific point of view, would encourage the practice of bush burning. He said Nigerians should be careful of bush burning, especially during the dry season and urged the people, saying they should do their part in ensuring a peaceful dry season period. “If you must burn bush at all, you must be extra-conscious during the harmattan period and get all the necessary measures on ground to curtail it or wait until the harmattan subsides”, he added.
He further charged the government to increase funding to fire stations and equip them with facilities and equipment to enhance service delivery, as “It is always better to prevent than to manage fire when it starts”, he stressed. Meanwhile, a Chief Agricultural Officer, Mr. James Ojo, has identified the dangers of bush burning and prevention. He admonished the government to create more fire stations across the country and locate them in strategic places for quick response. “When we talking about organic farming, we don’t need to burn, we allow the weeds to decay and form manure for the soil”, he stated further. In a nutshell, what we need to do for a safe environment can be summarised into three key points; having access to potable water, avoiding indiscriminate drilling of boreholes, shun wild fires and indiscriminate bush burning, even though the rainy gradually sets in the nation.
