As part of community development service, members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Bauchi State on Saturday, embarked on environmental sanitation at the popular Muda Lawal market in Bauchi.
The corps members turned out in their numbers and engaged in cleaning the entire market and clearing the gutters and heaps within the environment of the market.
Speaking during the exercise, the State Coordinator of NYSC, Rifkatu Yakubu, assured that the scheme would do everything possible to ensure clean environments to prevent disease outbreaks across the country.
Rifkatu Yakubu affirmed that a clean environment is a healthy one, stressing that the NYSC always inculcates the spirit of cleanliness in all corps members who later in turn stepped it down to the people in their various places of primary assignment.
She also said that the NYSC in Bauchi state was in collaboration with the state Environmental Protection Agency to ensure a more clean environment.
The NYSC boss pledged that the scheme would continue to partner with any organisation willing to prevent the outbreak of diseases by ensuring a clean environment in the state.
According to her, “We know that refuse would be higher around this place and that is why we chose to do our exercise here in Muda Lawal market in collaboration with the Bauchi State Environmental Protection Agency.”
She added, “This exercise is to encourage the people of the state to embrace cleanliness as well as the corps members, even those at the local governments and all NYSC officials to organise such exercises in order to keep our environment very clean.”
“The exercise also teaches the corps members to always keep their residence clean and those posted to schools should also organise such exercises so that the children coming up would also learn to keep their environment clean,” she said.
Also speaking, the Director General of Bauchi State Environmental Protection Agency (BASEPA), Dr Mahmood Bose, said that NYSC had recognized the need for environmental sanitation and hygiene, hence its collaboration with the agency.
The DG said that BASEPA and NYSC have been collaborating to ensure a healthy environment, adding that sanitation is something to be done frequently or every week.
According to him, “If you look at our population and how we litter our environment, you will realise that this is something we should be doing frequently, like on a weekly basis.”
He also stated, “This is a special cleaning exercise going on in this market and the NYSC has been a good partner for us.
“This is not the first time we are doing it together. We identified this market due to its strategic location as we have perishables, food items and other consumables that are sold here in the market.
“I’m calling on the people of this market to give maximum cooperation and support for this exercise to succeed and I also urge them to sustain it,” he advised.
Some of the Corps members expressed happiness in participating in the exercise, saying that a clean environment will promote Godliness while assuring that they are always ready to come out any time they are called to do so.
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