Chuks Oyema-Aziken
To minimize environmental health risks, the Federal Government has launched Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) professional regulatory instruments.
Minister of State for Environment, Mrs Sharon Ikeazor in her speech said that prevention remains better than cure hence, the guidelines will prevent health risks.
According to the minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Environment Engr Hassan, millions of Naira has been spent in response to some disease outbreaks in the country which ordinarily would have been prevented.
“Recently Lassa Fever outbreak came up and department of disease control moved to some states finding ways to reduce and prevent it from spreading to other parts of the state.
“EHORECON and prevention control have done fantastic job during the COVID-19 pandemic. During COVID-19, we were completely shutdown but before government agreed to comeback, we have to have guarantee/confirmation by EHORECON to carry out decontamination of all the public places before we were able to come back.
“That shows the importance of our offices. We look forward that this document is not going to be of use just today but sent down to LGA and put it into Operation so that we can improve health Operations”
In a goodwill message, the Director General of the Great Green Wall Dr Bukar Hassan said the instrument will provide additional capacity to improve the nation’s public health.
He said the document became a child of necessity in order to build a buffer against disease outbreaks.Also in a goodwill message, representative of the National Center For Disease Control (NCDC) Dr. Oyeladun Okunromade said the Environmental Health workers are key partners in the one health project.
Dr Oyeladun who is the deputy director surveillance at the NCDC, said the NCDC and the EHORECON have been partnering to improve health risks.
She added that the guideline will go a long way in ensuring that Nigeria meets global health targets.
Earlier, the Registrar Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) Dr Yakubu Mohammed Baba reaffirmed commitment to ensure strict compliance with the guidelines.
He said officers of the Council will be going round to enforce compliance and urged organisations to adhere to the guidelines.
