From Leo Nzwanke, Lafia
Brig. Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, Director General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has urged corps members across the country to advocate the importance of environmental hygiene to their host communities.
He stated this at the flag off of the 2021 NYSC National Environmental Sanitation Exercise held in Lafia, Nasarawa state capital on Saturday.
Daybreak news reports that the theme of the 2021 exercise is “Environment/Good Hygiene: Panacea for good health and Long life.”
In his address, the NYSC DG represented by Mr Abdullahi Jikamshi, Coordinator of the scheme in Nasarawa state said environmental sanitation has been recognized globally as one of the key requirements for prevention of diseases and their escalation to epidemic proportion.
He said given the importance of environmental sanitation, corps members are expected to advocate the importance of constant sanitation and good hygiene to members of their host communities so as prevent outbreak of diseases that can be easily prevented.
“Efforts must be stepped up to enlighten the general public, especially rural dwellers on the health risks of poor hygiene with particular focus on the prevention of contamination of food, water and the entire environment,” he said.
He explained that the call to action will promote cooperation and reduce indifference, making reference to the robust response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic with awareness creation, vigilance, and community policing becoming everyone’s business.
“We can no longer be indifferent to anything that will be detrimental to public health and safety,” he said.
Ibrahim noted that during the nationwide medical outreaches recently conducted on the platform of NYSC Health Initiative for Rural Dwellers (HIRD), most ailments diagnosed and treated were as a result of poor hygiene.
“They include chronic diarrhoea, dental caries (tooth decay), head/body lice, ringworm, dysentery, typhoid, polio, scabies trachoma, Hepatitis A and malaria amongst others.
“Therefore, efforts must be made to save many more lives by empowering the people with adequate information on good grooming and environmental hygiene,” he said.
He then listed the focus of the sensitization efforts to the corps members to include: regular environmental sanitation on a fortnight basis, proper disposal of human and animal waste, protection of food and water from contamination, good grooming on regular basis.
Others are community policing to enforce clean environment and proper waste disposal, regular hand wash and need to avoid frequent touch of the eyes, nose and mouth to minimize the spread of viruses, bacteria, germs, and infections.
“The public will be further educated on: decontamination of food due to exposure, disinfection of the environment, handling of toxic materials, susceptibility and risky habits, how best to handle bush burning and tree planting to support health ecosystem,” he said.
The NYSC DG added “It is heart warming that communities benefitted from the NYSC HIRD. We will not rest on our oars as we continue to offer health and other services including environmental protection.”
In an interview with newsmen, Jikamshi reiterated the NYSC DG’s stand that the exercise was not just for the corps members to come out for sanitation but to go back and sensitize their various communities on the importance of exercise.
“The aim of this exercise is also to sensitize the communities that keeping our environment clean is keeping our bodies healthy. After the HIRD medical outreach conducted in the state recently, we collected statistics.
“What we discovered is that most of the ailments treated are ailments that with a clean environment wont be there. We have corps members in all the communities in Nasarawa state, especially you can find a secondary school.
“So if the corps members can take the message down to their host communities, definitely, the entire state will be covered and environment friendly and clean,” he said
He then revealed that the exercise was been carried out in all the local government areas and development areas of the state simultaneously.
According to report, the corps members swept and cleared wastes in the markets and at motor parks in Lafia metropolis.
