* Set up disciplinary committee
By Our Correspondent
The house to house inspection by Environmental Health Officers has been reintroduced in Anambra State as part of measures to improve sanitary situation across the state.
The state branch of Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria has also set up a seven – member Ethics and Disciplinary Committee to monitor and regulate activities of its members and evolve way of generating revenue for the state.
President of the Association in Anambra State, Iyk Obasanya, who announced the initiatives during a meeting in Awka, expressed worry
about the declining sanitary situation in parts of Anambra State, particularly Onitsha, and directed all Environmental Health Officers in all the local government areas of the state to be up and doing.
Obasanya said: “The house to house inspection by Environmental Health Officers will commence soon for residential houses, business houses and offices to ensure that cleanliness is strictly maintained.
“During the inspection, we will be impounding expired products being sold brazenly across the state as people’s lives are jeopardized by the consumption of such expired products.
“We also intend to set up sanitation mobile courts to make the public to be alive to their responsibilities. Our work is preventive and that is why we must sit up to support Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s campaign for a liveable and healthy Anambra State
“We must change the narrative and this time around and it won’t be business as usual”.
He urged all the directors in the 21 local government areas to be sending reports to the newly inaugurated ethics and disciplinary committee on the misbehavior of members across the state, adding that all environmental health practitioners are free to send reports as whistle blowers.
“We have ethics of our profession and we must protect those ethics. If our members derail from the ethics, they should face the disciplinary action”, he added.
Speaking after their inauguration, the chairman of the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee, Dr. Emma Obiano, explained that in addition to protecting Environmental Health profession, the committee will be handling grievances of members.
He said: “We have 23 – point code of conduct and any breach of the ethics is to be handled by the committee. In the course of our training, we were thought the rules we must observe and we have to observe these rules.
“The disciplinary committee will also handle grievances members have against each other. The idea is to protect our profession and make it grow.
“Other people can also alert the committee of any misdemeanor by members of our profession and such reports will be looked into. Activities of private practitioners will also be ex- rayed.
“Government activities as they concern the practice of Environmental Health profession will form the duty of the committee. The committee will meet all the directors and stakeholders in government, including Commissioners, to work out areas of cooperation and assistance, to ensure the smooth operation of the disciplinary committee.
“One major takeaway is that we have closed the old chapter of indiscipline in our profession and have begun a new phase”.
He said that the committee will also handle the issue of revenue as the profession is expected to be generating revenue for government.
