Balarabe Lawal, the minister of setting, has raised alarm over the rising sanitation disaster in Nigeria, warning that poor environmental hygiene is fueling the unfold of infectious ailments corresponding to cholera, monkeypox, dengue fever, and COVID-19.
Lawal acknowledged this on Thursday in Abuja throughout a ministerial press briefing held in preparation for the 2025 Nationwide Environmental Sanitation Day (NESD) observance.
The minister who was represented by Bahijjahtu Abubakar, the Director of Air pollution Management and Environmental Well being, emphasised that unsanitary circumstances create a breeding floor for vector-borne ailments, notably in low- and middle-income international locations.
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He identified that the recurrence of sicknesses like cholera, monkeypox, dengue fever, and COVID-19 demonstrates the crucial want for improved sanitation and hygiene infrastructure.
Based on Lawal, the main target of this yr’s Nationwide Environmental Sanitation Day (NESD) goes past merely offering sanitation amenities. As a substitute, it emphasizes the significance of managing these programs safely to curb illness outbreaks and safeguard public well being.
He harassed the necessity for a extra holistic technique one which promotes good hygiene habits, ensures correct waste disposal, and strengthens the general administration of sanitation providers.
“The theme displays a rising recognition that efficient hygiene is vital to illness prevention. It represents a transfer towards longer-lasting and extra significant interventions,” he mentioned.
Lawal described NESD, noticed yearly on June 28, as an important public engagement instrument to advertise consciousness about sanitation and hygiene as low-cost, life-saving interventions.
Edwin Isotu-Edeh, a consultant of the World Well being Group (WHO) in Nigeria, emphasised the pressing want for higher funding within the nation’s sanitation sector.
He revealed that environmental hazards—corresponding to insufficient sanitation, climate-related challenges, and poisonous chemical publicity—are accountable for 1 / 4 of all preventable deaths in Nigeria.
Isotu-Edeh highlighted the robust connection between correct sanitation, hygiene, and public well being, noting that these usually are not solely well being imperatives but additionally essential for selling equity and sustainable growth.
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“Secure sanitation is a primary human proper, not a luxurious,” he acknowledged, citing World Well being Meeting Resolutions 64 and 24 in assist of this place.
He cautioned that Nigeria’s ongoing sanitation disaster continues to hazard lives, notably by heightening the danger of cholera and different infectious ailments, and urged a coordinated, cross-sectoral response to confront the difficulty head-on.
The Nationwide Environmental Sanitation Day (NESD) an annual occasion noticed in Nigeria each June 28. It serves as a nationwide marketing campaign to lift consciousness in regards to the crucial significance of environmental sanitation and hygiene in selling public well being and stopping illness.
