Environmental Sanitation Will Break Disease Cycle, Says Ekiti Health Commissioner

By Olanrewaju Falayi

The Honourable Commissioner for Health and Human Services in Ekiti State, Dr, Oyebanji Filani has said that the monthly environmental sanitation is poised to break the cycle of diseases and promote the health of members of the Ekiti State communities.

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Speaking with the Treasure Newspaper, on Saturday after the January edition of the monthly environmental sanitation exercise, Dr. Oyebanji Filani, who said the theme of this month exercise was tagged ‘HEALTH IS WEALTH’ charged the general public to clean their environment during the monthly sanitation exercises.

Filani stated that “there is mixed descent compliance across the State most especially a number places and sites already visited. At one of them, we still have people moving around, but I think it is less about people moving around. It is more about us to know the act of making sure that the environment is clean”.

Continuing, he said, “there are still quite a bit of work to do even though we are far better than where we used to be. So we are in the right direction. We will continue to ensure that we put all the necessary measures in place to ensure that we are able to keep Ekiti clean”.

Filani added further, that, “what is much more important to the State is whether Ekiti people will go out on Sunday or on a Tuesday to ensure they clean their respective environments”.

“What this monthly sanitation exercise does is ensuring that people are paying adequate attention to the cleaning of their environments. We will continue to encourage people to do that by staying at home to observe the monthly environmental sanitation exercise”.

“We will continue to make them realize and know, that, it is better for them to stay at home and get their environments clean and then, put out their wastes and disposed them appropriately. That is exactly our focus”. 

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Also, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Babatunde Alokan, said “the cleaning of the environment is not only supposed to take place during the last Saturday of every month. It should rather be done everyday. That is why we have various departments and units in the Ministry that handles things”. 

“The Environmental Health and Sanitation Department equally move around various houses to ensure that  Houses are clean and that a clean environment is maintained all the times”.

Alokan however expressed satisfaction with the January 2023 edition of the sanitation exercise saying that there was an increase in the level of compliance. 

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He encouraged the people that they should assist the government and promised that the government would continue to try to observe and ensure people make it an everyday affair. 

Most especially with what they do in their various daily activities and places of work. He was optimistic that people will improve their participation by next month.

The General Manager, State Environmental Protection agency, Mr Olukayode Adumo said “that Ekiti State is improving in terms of environmental sanitation. No doubt we have some challenges.

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He however solicited the support of the government in getting more personnel and acquisition of the needed equipments and logistics to effectively cover the increasing population in Ado Ekiti especially. Ado Ekiti is no longer a  local government headquarter, it is equally a State capital, so the influx of people into the state capital have actually led to an increased in waste generation in the State. 

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