Catholic Church Embarks On Environmental Sanitation In Enugu

Apparently   worried over the alarming  rate of refuse heaps in various streets and roads of  Enugu the capital city of Enugu state  metropolis and environs ,  the Catholic Diocese of Enugu, recently  embarked on a massive environmental sanitation exercise  across the state capital and  communities within the Diocese .

   Tagged “Catholic Environmental Day”, the exercise was personally  supervised by the Bishop of the Diocese, Rt. Rev. Dr. Calistus Onaga, and  was held in all the over 50 parishes that made up the Diocese .

      Speaking to  newsmen on why the church embarked on the exercise, carried out by both the priests,  religious, and the  entire  fateful, Bishop Onaga, explained that the idea was born out of the adage that says  “cleanliness  is next to Godliness” and a “healthy mind in a healthy body”.

 The church ,  the man of God said, decided to carry out the sanitation exercise as part of contributing  its own quota towards serving humanity and a way of complimenting the state government’s effort towards transforming the coal city state.

  ”I am appealing to every body to join hands in keeping our environment clean, because the government is doing its best to keep our places clean and provide us with needed social infrastructure.”

      Bishop Onaga, who expressed satisfaction with the overwhelming turnout of the faithful, and priests during the exercise , however appealed to residents of  Enugu to start inculcating the habit of clean environment, saying, “I am also appealing to every body when we must have finished cleaning the places, let every body  take it as his or her own responsibility to always see that the environment is clean.”

 He, also used the exercise to advise residents of Enugu and environs  to stop dumping refuse on the roads, as  the roads have been constructed  with drainages, so, “the Catholic church is supporting a government that is good.”

       Reacting to the church’s action,  the  founder, African Thinkers Community of Inquiry College of Education and priest in charge of Divine Mercy chaplaincy,  Rev. Fr. Professor  Stan  Anih, who  led his students in the clean up exercise, described it as a  healthy development , advising  people to always be mindful of their environment, as  “those who resides in dirty   surrounding always  reason in a dirty way.”