In order to achieve the set objectives of a clean environment that will promote healthy living, Bauchi State Environmental Protection Agency (BASEPA) has concluded plans to introduce the current compulsory environmental sanitation exercise.
The disclosure was made by the Director General of BASEPA, Dr Muhammad Mahmud Bose while interacting with members of a Bauchi based CSO, Journalists for Public Health and Development Initiative (J4PD) in his office on Thursday.
According to him, the agency has replaced the compulsory sanitation exercise with the community-led total sanitation strategy to keep the environment clean and healthy.
He said before now, the State used to observe every last Saturday of the month as environmental sanitation day but that has not yielded the most needed impact as people don’t stay at home to clean their environment
This time, he noted that the agency will pick communities that will be supported with working tools for them to clean their environment themselves.
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According to him, “We have noticed that during the monthly sanitation exercise most people just sit at home doing nothing just waiting for the exercise to be over for them to go out, so instead of barricading roads we decided to take the exercise to the people”.
Mahmud Muhammad stated that the exercise will be accompanied with three planting to mitigate the effects of deforestation.
The DG noted that Journalists for Public Health and Development Initiative has taken a giant step towards protecting the environment with the campaign of tree planting.
“Public health and development are pressing issues that requires global concerns, we cannot separate the two but in carrying out development the society should do so without much destruction on the environment”.
He said the State has taken measures to address climate change through the climate resilient fecal sludge management.
Dr Mahmud Muhammad said there are many areas that the Agency will partner J4PD especially as it regards afforestation.
Programme Manager of Journalists for Public Health and Development Initiative, Ishola Michael Adeyemi said the visit was to seek for collaboration in area of environmental protection.
He noted that a clean and healthy environment is key to the prevention of diseases in the society.
Ishola Michael promised that the organization will sustain it’s campaign for environmental protection through awareness creation.
