2020 NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION DAY (NESD)

ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION FOR DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTROL 

By : Sanitarian Jeffrey Obadaya LHNR, The President of the Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria, Delta State Chapter.

28th of June is set aside annually as National Environmental Sanitation Day (NESD) in Nigeria. This declaration was made in the launch of the National Environmental Sanitation Policy and its operating guidelines in 2005 by the Federal Government of Nigeria. It is celebrated to raise awareness and engender collaborative approach by all stakeholders. The theme for this year is “Sanitation and Hygiene: Fundamental to COVID 19 Prevention”.

The need to protect and regenerate our environment is very essential, following the increased rate of human activities on the environment on daily basis, both at the micro and macro levels, coupled with the fact that human lives depend on the environment that provides all the basic needs of life, even as far as the air we breathe. 

In spite of the vital role of the environment in sustaining lives, our activities have negatively impacted on it. This has resulted in outbreaks of alien diseases, including the novel COVID 19 currently destroying lives in pandemic proportion.

This may have necessitated the focus of this year's National Environmental Sanitation Day (NESD) celebration on the prime mover interface of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) as very salient elements in containing the COVID 19 pandemic. 

The quality of our environment truly matters in maintaining health and wellbeing. There is the need for total commitment to the ideals of a sustainable environment by intentionally investing in both human and material resources, and also embracing technological advancement.

Environmental sanitation which is the control of those factors in man's physical environment that exercise or may exercise a deleterious effect on his physical development, health and survival, is therefore key to reversing the trend of untidiness and degradation caused by man's unwholesome activities, and creating a quality environment fit for human habitation. 

Environmental sanitation entails the control of solid, liquid and gaseous waste and emissions from either domestic, municipal or industrial sources that may be hazardous to human life.

In 2006, the UN General Assembly designated 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation (IYS). There could be no better time than now to recognize the essential role of Environmental Health in the overall health care delivery and reinvigorate environmental sanitation which is vital to health and dignity, and essential for social and economic development.

Many emerging and reemerging diseases, including zoonotic transmissions are currently on the rise, mainly because of man's indiscriminate lifestyle and the neglect of the environment, with lesser attention given to sanitation by individuals, government and development partners. 

While poor sanitation is responsible but not limited to the spread of dysentery, typhoid, cholera and other gastro-intestinal diseases globally, improved sanitation has been known to reduce disease transmission. The need to sustainably control our activities and sanitize our environment on regular basis cannot be overemphasized.  

Let us always keep our environment clean by sanitarily disposing of our solid and dry waste, adequately draining and sealing up our liquid and wet waste, cleaning up our blocked and dirty drains, clearing overgrown weeds from our surroundings, protecting our water sources, stopping open defecation and maintaining a clean environment as well as a high level of personal hygiene.

Nigerians need to retrace their steps and have attitudinal change by cultivating the right habit of cleanliness for a healthy living and a sustainable environment.