Will environmental inspectors’ return solve Nigeria’s sanitation challenges?

The 2017 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that many Nigerians are exposed to life-threatening environment due to poor sanitation and lack of potable water. This portends danger for the actualisation of the eighth item on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which targets to “Ensure availability and […]

The 2017 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that many Nigerians are exposed to life-threatening environment due to poor sanitation and lack of potable water.

This portends danger for the actualisation of the eighth item on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which targets to “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.”

Daily Trust checks showed that public spaces have been converted to dump sites while streets are now a ‘safe’ haven for open defecation. These spaces are found in many communities across the country which expose residents to diseases such as cholera. It is common to see food vendors and shops doing businesses by some of these locations.

During an event to celebrate the National Sanitation Day in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, said access to sanitary facilities remained a mirage to a vast majority of Nigerians.

While noting that many people still use the bush and water bodies as their regular means for excreta disposal, she said many institutions do not have sanitary facilities or that such facilities are short in supply.

She revealed that the Federal Government has commenced sanitary inspection of its establishments including ministries, agencies, schools, barracks, abattoirs, and markets to enable it to address the issue of open defecation.

According to the minister, the sanitary inspection of some identified communities will be carried out by the ministry’s health officers in collaboration with the Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) and Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB).

The development brought to the fore the roles of environmental health officers and inspectors in schools and communities in time past to achieve a cleaner and healthy environment and cannot be overemphasised.

Environmental health officers ensure that homes and workplaces are safe, hygienic and healthy.

These inspectors were always on a routine visit to schools to check if pupils were properly dressed and ensure that the school environment is hygienic enough for studying.

They were also present in streets to help enforce sanitation by residents and as a result ensured the environment remained clean and conducive to live in. But they have disappeared from the scenes and residents now have a field day degrading the environment.

The National Council on Environment had in 2016 agreed to bring back compulsory monthly sanitation to help address the issue in the country.

Now with the declaration of June 29th as National Sanitation Day, Odusote said the day is declared to institutionalise sound environmental sanitation practices as a lifestyle amongst the populace through massive awareness creation and reward to innovative best practices.

A resident of Jikwoyi, Mike Dauda, who spoke to Daily Trust said the use of environmental officers will help in checkmating the menace of environmental degradation especially irregular dumping of refuse.

He said people littered the streets not minding the consequences on the environment and their health, “and the AEPB which is supposed to ensure the environment is clean is busy chasing hawkers in the streets to confiscate their goods instead of ensuring a safe environment.”

He said if the health officers can be empowered to move around as it was in the 80s, it will bring sanity to the system.

The Registrar of EHORECON, Dr. Dominic Abonyi, speaking of the time environmental health officers were employed to enforce clean environment, said the officers were known by different names across the country.

“The environmental health workers were known as the Dubagaris in the North and Wolewole in the South, so Nigerian languages recognised them. In those days, when they were fighting plaque, pox and other diseases alongside with the white man, it was sanitation all the way.

“Today we are coming back with Federal Government’s serious commitment to sanitation and environmental health services, that is why the council is now here. But the council has taken notice that diseases strengths, capacity and types have changed,” he said.

He also identified Lassa fever as one of the environmental related diseases that have caused many deaths in the country in recent years.

Dr. Abonyi said: “The index case of the main carrier of Lassa fever or the reservoir is the multimammate rat.

“So if our environment is fashioned that man, his food and other material will be secluded from rat, it’s a primary step. We have to leave food, grow food, prepare food and eat it in an environment devoid of rats.”

He said a clean environment would help check the spread of the deadly fever.

“Even when we make mistakes and get Lassa fever from rats, the environment can also help us to prevent the transmission. Everybody must wash their hands before a meal and after toilet. If it becomes our culture and we have the capacity to live in houses without rats, Lassa fever will be addressed.

“Most of the diseases that are confronting us today with the very big threat are no longer bacterial diseases neither are they protozoa diseases even though bacteria diseases are still available,” Dr Abonyi said.

“Now other diseases have gone viral so you will hear of only viral diseases and some of them have gone beyond the virus. The focus of the council is to produce environmental officers to the highest class. If we do our sanitation very well, we will not have to go to the hospital.”

On the health officers’ plight, he said “They go out,  but their capacity is low both in quantity and quality.If you look at the greatest enforcement of sanitation, success is obtained at the county level, the municipality in Nigeria is the local government and it does not have financial autonomy.

“You notice in Nigeria today with those who are already recruited;a recent survey by the council shows that the minimum environmental health officers across Nigeria in the local government  system is on grade level 12, that means they are not being employed recently.”

Meanwhile the Permanent Secretary has said in other to promote clean and safe environment, the ministry, with other stakeholders, is presently reviewing the sanitation policy of 2005 and its guidelines on safe excreta and sewage disposal. She also said the ministry has initiated a programme tagged “Clean and Green” to end open defecation by 2025.