Healthcare: Don urges FG to strengthen environmental health
Healthcare: Don urges FG to strengthen environmental health
NAN-H-76
Health
By Bushrah Yusuf-Badmus
Ilorin, March 14, 2017 (NAN) The Dean, School of Allied Health, Kwara State University (KWASU), Dr Henry Sawyerr, has called on the Federal Government to urgently strengthen environmental health system to tackle health-related problems in the country.
Sawyerr made the call on Tuesday at the First Joint Scientific Conference on Environmental Health organised by KWASU, Malete, in collaboration with International Federation of Environmental Health in Africa and others.
He expressed noted that the present Nigerian health system encouraged curative health against preventive and called for priority attention on preventive health to tackle challenges in the sector.
He said that the country’s health system had long been overdue for adoption of preventive measure in the sector with the strengthening of its environmental health, adding that curative measure only waste resources.
“Over the years, government’s policies intend to put curative health over preventive healthcare.
“Environmental health is preventive. If your environment is not properly taken care of it is obvious you will have reoccurrence of diseases.
“Priority attention should be given to environmental health in Nigeria by empowering the environmental health officers.
“The environmental health officers should be elevated from their present status to what could be called Environmental Corps to be able to play more active roles.
“Especially in the area of creation of awareness in the dangers inherent in air pollution, open defecation and indiscriminate waste disposal, and to properly take care of the needs of the health sector in the country.
“The responsibilities of environmental health officers in the past had rather been marginalised to premises inspection, house-to-house inspection or visiting market places.
“But the issue of environmental health is far broader than that,” he said.
The don also proposed the creation of what could be called the National Institute of Environmental Health in Nigeria to train professionals for desired health delivery.
Sawyerr explained that the conference was organised to build a strong working relationship between the environmental health officers and other scientists to proffer adequate solution to the recurrent problems in the health sector.
He noted that at least 15 West African countries were in attendance for the conference.
He added that the conference would give birth to the first international journal that would continue to be a platform both for young scholars and scientists in several other areas of the environment.
Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. AbdulRasheed Na’Allah, admitted that environmental health had over the years suffered great challenges.
Na’Allah advised Nigerians on proper disposal of wastes to support the government in its drive to build a strong health system in the country. (NAN)
BAY/GOM/MST
Edited by Gregory Mmaduakolam/Muhammad Suleiman Tola