Nigeria has inaugurated four professional regulatory Guidelines to enhance the practice of environmental health in the country
The guidelines are on -house to house inspection of Premises, -public health pests and vector control, – disinfection and decontamination of public places as well as registration of environmental health professional service providers.
At the presentation of the guidelines in Abuja, the Minister of State for Environment, Sharon Ikeazor, described the documents as preventive measures against zoonotic diseases and other infections in humans.
“Billions of naira have been spent on diseases that we could have prevented. There’s no doubt that prevention is better than cure.” She said
The Registrar, Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) Dr. Yakubu Mohamed Baba explained that the guidelines aimed at returning sanitary inspectors to homes and public buildings, reduction of incidence of diseases being transmitted by pest and vectors as well as provision of over ten thousand job opportunities to the people.
The last guideline is the presidential agendas in terms of job creation; there is a lot of job opportunities, more than ten thousand jobs in the environmental sector,’’ he said.
The Director-General, National Agency for the Great Green Wall, Bukar Hassan who spoke on behalf of heads of Agencies under the ministry gave assurance that the documents would provide the required capacity for environmental health workers.
Also the Emir of Jiwa in the FCT, Alhaji Idris Musa expressed the hope that the guidelines would restore efficiency in the practice of environmental health.
Reporting by Godson Elekwachi, editing by Daniel Adejo.