Chuks Oyema-Aziken
Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, Mr Mahmuda Mamman says the federal government is committed to strengthen environmental health practice in the country.
He stated this when some officials of West African Post-Graduate College of Environmental Health (WAPCEH) and Environmental Health Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) visited the ministry on Wednesday in Abuja.
Towards this, he harped on the collaboration with the WAPCEH to continue to build capacity of environmental health practitioners across the country.
This collaboration he said would not only promote and strengthen environmental health, but would also move the officers forward, through achieving its mandates and objectives across the country.
“The meeting is also to discuss how we can interrogate, collaborate and bring all of us together to discuss, agree and find a way forward on how we can handle environmental health issues.
“This is part of our discussions and we have to discuss more in order to identify so many areas where we can work together.
“Also, we have agreed that this meeting will continue in order for us to review the progress made so far from the deliberations,’’ he said.
He disclosed that there was an ongoing collaboration between WAPCEH and some ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to strengthen the practice.
He further stated that the ministry was working with the Ministries of Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development, Water Resources and other MDAs in the areas of environmental health issues.
Registrar of EHCN, Dr Yakubu Baba, said that the agencies and the MDAs were working together to ensure that the environment sector had strong guides on issues relating to it.
Baba said that the guide was to improve public health, adding that part of the purpose of the visit was to seek ways of strengthening the collaboration between the government and WAPCEH.
“I want to make an emphasis from what the permanent secretary has just said; Nigerians should be aware that there is a new dawn because the spirit of one health concert already exists.
“We are already working together with cross-cutting ministries and I believe that Nigerians are going to see new changes now that the health ministry will take the leadership in the coordination of environmental health services,’’ he said.
Also speaking, the Registrar/Secretary of WAPCEH, Dr Rotimi Adeyemi, thanked the ministry and EHCN for the collaboration, adding that the effort would go a long way in fortifying the environmental health officers.
“WAPCEH is concerned about environmental health officers in Nigeria. It is our hope that our discussion today will take the bull by the horns and ensure that other issues are effectively attended to.
“They can deploy health officers to other ministries, such as water resources, environment and agriculture and rural development, but the officers should be domiciled at the health ministry.
“WAPCEH believes that strong collaboration between the college and the government can lead to health development in West Africa.
“This is our concern. We thank the officials of the ministry and we hope to continue from where we stopped today next time we meet,’’ he said.
