Training and re-training
of sanitary inspectors will ensure a safe and green environment in the country an official of the Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) has said.
Mr Yakubu Muhammed, the Head of Education and training of the council, said this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
Acoording to him, re-training of environmental health inspectors will go a long way in increasing the capacity of officers to implement sanitary strategies that would ensure environmental well-being, especially at the grassroots.
“We have our plans; most of what we do is to improve the capacity of most of our members so that they can take the message to the grassroots.
“One of our priorities since we started our Mandatory Continuing Development Programme (MCDP) has been to look at the issues that are very much related to the environmental challenges we have in Nigeria.
“We are also looking at the possibility of improving the knowledge of our people through sponsorship for specialised degree programmes.’’
According to him, environmental health is very complex and new things are always emerging; so we have to move with the trend.
Muhammed said that judging by the global trend, an issue like global warming and new environmental challenges required speedy attention and new techniques to tackle.
He also said that in the drive to improve the capacity and expertise of officials, experts from within and outside the country had been selected to teach its members and expose them to ideas that would expand their knowledge on these emerging trends.
“What we do is to come up with relevant curriculums and bring in experts from in and outside the country so that they can come and share their experiences with and in so doing, equip our officials with the necessary knowledge for better performance.
“The purpose of doing this is to be able to deliver on the mandate given to them at the local government levels,’’ he said.
He noted that as a regulatory body, the council needed to be meticulous in the training and re-training of officers whom he described as the foot soldiers that work with people at the grassroots.
According to him, if we can deal with the grassroot population, then the message of public environmental health will have been achieved.
Muhammed called on the government to employ more sanitary inspectors so that the mandate of the council could be attained.
“According to the standard of the World Health Organisation, there should be one health officer to 8,000 population.
“But this is not what we find in Abuja or even in Nigeria, as the number of health officers is grossly inadequate when compared to the population we have,” he said.