By Stanley Onyekwere
The Environmental Health Authority of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), at the weekend took its reinvigorated awareness campaign against open defecation and indiscriminate waste disposal practices to the people of Orozo community, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The awareness campaign, which is part of its ongoing ‘Operation Clean Up AMAC”, provided a platform through which members of the community, were sensitized on the unwholesome hygiene habits as well as its attendant serious environmental health problems.
Addressing the people who gathered at the community’s Chief palace, the HOD of Environment, AMAC, Hajiya Maimunatu Abubakar, identified some serious environmental health problems associated with the menace to include outbreak of diseases like diarrhea, typhoid, cholera, poliomyelitis among others, and usually death.
According to her, for people to be safeguarded from these environmental health problems, they must stop open defecation, ensure safe disposal of excreta, maintain high standard of personal hygiene, and educate their family on general environmental hygiene.
Stressing the need for people provide adequate toilet facilities in their homes, she said the benefits of toilets include- a place to relieve oneself (urinate and defecate), prevention of diseases, protection from adverse weather conditions and biological hazards, safe cost of treatments of diseases resulting from open defecation, and boosting and empowering communities on economic growth.
Urging all those present to go back home and construct a Latrine within two weeks and inform other that were absent to do same, the HOD, warned them that the Department after the awareness campaign will embark on aggressive regulatory enforcement on erring members of the community that failed to comply.
On his part, Chief of Orozo, Musa Adogi, who expressed joy over the sensitization prgramme, said the leaders and people of the community are fully in support of whatever measure that the government is taking or would take to ensure improved sanitary condition of the area and other parts of the council.
