Personal, public hygiene crucial to curbing diseases –Scientist

Environmental health scientist, Dr. Umar Kwami says more Nigerians must embrace the culture of good personal and public hygiene to curb the spread of infections.

According to Kwami, a cleaner environment is crucial to curbing the spread of diseases in the country.

Kwami, an Environmental Health Superintendent and Waste Manager with the Gombe State Environmental Sanitation and Protection Agency, stressed that proper and regular cleaning of the environment will help reduce diseases and sickness.

He made this plea on Saturday, in an interview with journalists in Bolari, Gombe, after participating in an environmental sanitation exercise organised by the National Youth Service Corps.

Kwami said, “This exercise is very vital because aside from security which is the protection of lives and property. The next is the environment, if we are not healthy, it means our environment is not healthy which can be caused by improper waste disposal, water pollution, climate change.

“We are very delighted, since the inception of the current administration under the leadership of Governor Inuwa Yahaya, the government is making effort to ensure a healthy environment.

“The cleaning of our environment will prevent the outbreak and spread of diseases such as cholera, malaria, typhoid, and so on.

“We really appreciate the corps members for carrying out such a programme in the state particularly the sensitisation of the people.”

He added, “Let us join hands to keep our environment clean through proper waste disposal and by avoiding dumping of refuse in drainages and waterways, as well as by not building houses on waterways.”

Also speaking, the Gombe State Coordinator of NYSC, Ada Imoni, harped on the theme of the event: ‘Clean environment/good hygiene: Panacea for good health and long life’, noting that to achieve the objective of the event, every member of the community must get involved in environmental sanitation.

Also speaking during the event, a monitoring officer, NYSC directorate headquarters, John Guli, said he was in the Gombe to ensure compliance with the exercise.

Guli who is also an assistant director on Sustainable Development Goals expressed satisfaction at the level of attendance.

According to him, “We are here to sensitise the community on the importance of hygiene. I’m impressed with the high turnout of corps members and the way they were distributed within the communities. The exercise will bring a lot of changes in the state.”

A participant, Dr. Stephen Esisere, while also speaking at the event, said the benefiting communities would benefit immensely from the NYSC programme.

“The impact of our activities can not be overemphasised. A Nation is as healthy as its environment. If we have a clean environment, the majority of the disease condition we see regularly will be avoided.

“It is very important that we do this alongside other preventive health measures. We hope that even as we have taken the first step that the host community will learn from what we are doing and in no distant time replicate this themselves,” he said.