LG Chair enjoins residents on environmental exercise

The executive chairman of Obafemi Owode Local Government of Ogun
State, Alhaji Jamiu Balogun, during an environmental sanitation
exercise on Saturday, at Owode Egba the Local Government Headquarters,
has educated the people of the Local government on the importance of
clean environment.

While addressing the press on Saturday, at the environmental
sanitation spot, Mr Balogun, who believes that clean environment increases the quality of
conducive environment and reduces the risk of diseases in the society,
told NEWSVERGE that environmental sanitation
is a set of actions geared towards improving the quality of the
environment and reducing the amount of disease.

By doing so, the hope
is that living conditions will improve and health problems will
decrease. The management of water, solid waste, and industrial waste,
as well as the topic of pollution and noise control, all fall under
the umbrella of environmental sanitation.

”An estimated 12.6 million people died as a result of living or
working in an unhealthy environment in 2012 – nearly 1 in 4 of total
global deaths, according to the latest estimates from WHO.
Environmental risk factors, such as air, water and soil pollution,
chemical exposures, climate change, and ultraviolet radiation,
contribute to more than 100 diseases and injuries”. He said.

Mr Balogun who also suggested ways out of dirty environment stated
that by focusing on reducing environmental and social risk factors,
nearly a quarter of the global burden of disease can be prevented.
Examples include promoting safe household water storage, better
hygiene measures, safer management of toxic substances in the home and
workplace.

At the same time, actions by sectors such as energy,
transport and agriculture are required urgently, in cooperation with
the health sector, to address root environmental and social causes of
ill-health that lie beyond the direct control of the health sector.

He enjoined the good people of the Local Government to take the exercise more
seriously by cleaning gutters and cutting weeds in their immediate
environment. Mr Balogun urged residents to desist from indiscriminate dumping of
refuse into canals, drainages and other undesignated sites, saying
that such habits could result to flooding, destruction of properties
and loss of lives. “Please collaborate with government in its efforts to achieve a clean
environment where lives are safed, business can thrive”, Balogun
stated.

The Chairman who also warned that ignorance of law offers no excuse in
the court of law said that ”Government would not folds its arm and
watch the unabated abuse of the environment. However, mobile courts
are already on ground not only in Our Local Government, but across the
State to prosecute defaulters. Also, Environmental Corps Marshals and
other law enforcement personnel are equally on duty to enforce the
State’s sanitation law therefore anyone being caught has no excuse
than to face the sanction under law”.