The Abia State Government has emphasized the urgent need to reawaken the role of Sanitary Inspectors in the 17 Local Government Areas of the State.
Speaking during a meeting with all the Heads of Environmental Health Departments of Local Government Areas in Umuahia, on Wednesday, the Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Philemon Asonye Ogbonna recalled the active roles played in the past by Sanitary Inspectors to maintain high level of hygiene in both the rural areas and the cities in the State.
He, therefore, urged the Heads of the Environmental Health Departments to join hands with the Dr. Alex Otti led administration to ensure that government activities at the State Level in the area of environmental health were replicated at their various local government areas.
Ogbonna emphasized the need to strengthen the environmental sanitation exercise in each of the local government areas, and reignite the consciousness and emotions evoked by the roles of the Sanitary Inspectors of old.
The Commissioner, who assured them of the support of government, also harped on the importance of raising the standard of public environmental health practices, adding that they should sensitise their communities using radio jingles and the traditional media of information dissemination.
In a response, the Chairperson of the Forum, Mrs. Onyinyechi Nwaigwe thanked the Commissioner for inviting them for the meeting, which she said was the first of its kind since they began to work as Sanitary Inspectors in the State.
She reeled out their challenges, which ranged from starvation of funds by the Local Government Councils, absence of cemeteries in all the Local Government Areas to lack of cooperation from the traditional rulers and villages heads.
