FCT Partners EHORECON On Hygiene, Sanitation


Posted on: Tue 06-08-2013

TOWARDS maintaining a clean and serene environment, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) plans to partner with the Environmental Health Officers (EHO) on hygiene and sanitation.
 
  This was made known last week during the visit of the Environmental Health Officers led by the Registrar of the Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON), Mr. Augustine Ebisike to the Minister of State for the FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide in her office in Abuja.  
 
    The Minister said it was necessary to form partnership with EHO to look at areas, such as market, general sanitation of the people  working in the area of food. According to her, ‘these are one-off issues that need to be institutionalised and need a time frame in which to make them operational’.
 
  She said the Federal Capital Territory would do everything to support the profession to achieve its laudable goals.
 
    Akinjide however, stated that the issue of sanitary concessionaires was a legal requirement, saying ‘’We have actually made provision for sanitary concessionaires in the satellite areas and we will make sure they all register with the Council and also make them comply with some basic standards, which are for the protection of service health workers,” she said recalled with nostalgia how the sanitary inspectors in early 50s and 80s were seen all over the place going from house to house doing what they know how to do best.
 
   He maintained that there were no cases of collapse building in those days because  sanitary inspectors were around.
 
   On the issue of the employment of EHO, Ebisike while informing the Minister said the WHO approved figure of environmental health officers is one environmental health officer to 8,000 population but the total number of registered EHOs today is less than 7,000. 
 
   The Registrar however revealed that there were a number of eateries that are not certified to cook for the members of the public, saying when you cook food for public consumption, what is the status of the food vendor? Some diseases like typhoid are spread by eateries, he claimed.
 
   In his own remarks, the Permanent Secretary FCT, Mr. John Obinna Chukwu said issues of sanitation had been taken for granted in this country adding that Nigeria was not as developed in the 60s and everywhere was sparkling whereas today every mansion is surrounded by filth.



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