Mrs. Oluwatoyin Saraki, the Wife of the Senate
President and Founder, Wellbeing Foundation, has said that millions of women
and children die of needless death through preventable causes.
Mrs. Saraki said that statistics has shown that
3.5 million children die before their fifth birthday and one in 13 women die
during childbirth and pregnancy most of which could be avoided by access to
clean water and proper hand washing techniques.
She spoke at the 2018 National Health Advancement
Conference and Awards with the theme, “Environmental Health: Reawakening
National Awareness on Environmental Health Hazards and Safety,” organised by
the Help Keep Clean Foundation in Abuja
penultimate weekend.
“We recently launched sanitation and hygiene
programme focusing on hand hygiene for school children and pregnant and nursing
mothers educating them on proper hand washing.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mike Omotosho, Founder, Mike
Omotosho Foundation and Chairman of the occasion, said the biggest factor of current concern is
the increase in carbon dioxide levels due to emissions from vehicle fuel, construction
and cement manufacturers
Other factors, he said, include land use, ozone
depletion, deforestation and animal agriculture.
He said that deforestation for animal grazing is a
burning national concern as about 18 percent live stocks is responsible for gas
emission as measured by carbon dioxide equivalents. This, however, includes
land use change meaning deforestation to create grazing land.
Saying, as much as 70 per cent deforestation is to
make way for grazing land obviously this is a major cause for concern in
addition to carbon dioxide emission.
“We all must play a role in preserving our
environment starting from our immediate compound,” he said.
Malla Ibrmahim Jibril, Minister of State for
Environment and keynote speaker, said Nigeria is endowed with abundant natural
and human resources transversing over 9,000 square kilometres of land.
However, the country is faced with diverse
environmental challenges such as desertification in the north to erosion and
pollution in the south.
These challenges come in manifold hazards which
may be biological, chemical, economical and physical which threaten human
survival and development of Nigeria. They inflict injuries, causing diseases
and psychosocial disorder; all these take their toll on the lives of the
citizens with the accompanying damage to property as well as loss of lives.
The minister who was represented at the occasion
by the Registrar, Environment Health Constitution Council, Dr. Dominic Abonyi,
said there is a need to reawaken national awareness on environmental health
hazard and safety.
“This underscores the imperative of the present
administration’s cardinal objectives of engaging critical stakeholders
represented by the Civil Society Organisation.
Comments
Post a Comment