By Omowumi Samuel.
The Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with relevant stakeholders including Bwari Area Council, has taken campaign to Kubwa district of the Capital Territory, an epicenter of the scourge.
It is no longer news that Nigeria is experiencing cholera outbreak in several parts of the country with related cases of fatalities. This disease has remained a global threat to public health and has affected both children and adult overtime, which has resulted to death.
The Honourable Minister of Environment, Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Abel Olumuyiwa Enitan, stated that the latest situation report from Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, (NCDC) released on 17th August, 2021 indicated a total number of 37,498 suspected cases including 1,149 death in 24 states of the federation and FCT at large.
According to him, “Cholera which is a sanitation and hygiene enabled disease, is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of unwholesome food or water, contaminated with the bacterium, due to poor hygiene, unsafe environmental sanitation”.
Also this virulent disease takes between 12 hours and 5 days for symptoms to manifest.
The cholera outbreak is a seasoned public health event in Nigeria, which comes annually, mostly during the rainy season and more often in areas with poor sanitation and hygiene practices.
He added that ”this year’s outbreak is very serious and has continued to ravage many states with more casualties recorded daily”.
The Minister went further to highlight that ”over the years, the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with stakeholders cutting across the Academia, Development partners among others, has taken calculative steps to deliver adequate sanitation and hygiene services to the citizens.
Likewise, these measures taken has been recognized as follows: development of policies, regulatory and legislative frame work, implementation of relevant programmes and project, establishment of relevant regulatory and enforcement agencies amongst others.
Present at the event is the Honourable Minister FCT, Malam Mohammed Musa Bello, who emphasized that the cholera outbreak curve has flattened and remained so in FCT since week 32, through to the current week 34, with zero daily reported cases from all previously affected communities across the 6 Area councils.
He expressed his deep regrets as a result of the death toil recorded and assured that efforts will be intensified to ensure there is no such reoccurrence.
The Chairman, Bwari Area Council, John Garbaya, lauded the engagement of the government in ensuring safety to the people. He enjoined the government, being a responsible administration to take immediate measures to curb and stop the spread of this dreadful disease.
Consequently, the Honourable Minister of Environment implored the Local government council chairmen to engage graduates of Environmental health as volunteers for this response and subsequently employ more officers for such sanitation services.
In his words,” sanitation and hygiene issues is a collective community responsibility”, therefore all segments of the society including community association/leaders, traditional rulers, NGOs/CBOs, faith based organizations, religious leaders, youth/women groups, professional bodies, have been urged to get involved in the nationwide intervention response for cholera outbreak.
