Nigerian Govt urged to establish Environmental Health Service Commission

The Abuja chapter of Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria has urged the Federal Government to establish Environmental Health Service Commission to enhance operations and enforcement of environmental laws in Nigeria.

The President of the association, Mr Damian Mgbaramuko, gave the advice in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.

Mgbaramuko said that the creation of Environmental Health Service Commission would enable environmental health officers to have a central body that would coordinate their activities right from the ward, local government level to the state and the national level.

“The major problem we have as far as the environmental health profession is concerned is that our activities are not well-coordinated. We need to have environmental health service commission to handle this.

“The environmental health profession ought to be managed by a commission.

“If we have a commission, it will supervise and regulate every environmental health matter in the country, without having to wait for the local government or the ministry to regulate the activities of our people anywhere they are working.

“Right now, we don’t even have a directorate of environmental health in some ministries and certain indices have shown that environmental health is not working in Nigeria,’’ he said.

The president said that efforts to make the profession to work should entail the creation of an environmental health service commission, which should be headed by a Sanitarian-General.

Mgbaramuko noted that the Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) was only saddled with the responsibilities of the registration and training of environmental health workers.

“Presently, we lack coordination and we need a body that will specifically be saddled with that responsibility so as to enhance the operations and enforcement of environmental laws in the country,’’ he said.