BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
Environmental Health Council of Nigeria (EHCON) has challenged professional bodies to unearth scientifically proven solutions in addressing emerging and re-emerging issues in public and environmental health.
Registrar of EHCON, Dr Yakubu Baba stated this on Tuesday at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Society for Environmental and Public Health of Nigeria (SEPHON), Environmental and Public Health Practitioners of Nigeria (EPHPAN), and West African Health Examination Board (WAHEB) in Abuja.
The MoU is expected to bridge human capacity gaps, strengthen Environmental Health (EH) practise and public health, and provide the needed manpower to bolster EH profession in Nigeria.
Baba stated that the council will leverage on the manpower and resources within the society to move EH to a new level, saying that the dynamics in the practice results to emerging and re-emerging issues.
He recalled that EHCON was established to only register Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) but the ammended law empowered the council to regulate EH practice.
Baba said: "What it entails is that the mandate and scope of the council increased to cover not only EHOs working in the field but other sub- professionals practicing in the field.
"The amended law also covers the private practitioners who are also the major players in the practice of EH. The key players in EH include those in public health, pest control, cleaning services and waste management.
"Also, those that practice the profession in the area of health impact assessment and new areas that are coming on board such as healthcare waste management which is a big problem.
"EHCON"s partnership with the mega association will be a win-win situation for the practitioners because the association will serve as the rallying point for other thematic associations in EH."
The registrar commended the National President of EPHPAN, San Samuel Akingbehin who reached out to support EHCON, promising to back the association in addressing the yearnings of EHOs.
He pointed out that WAHEB has been playing a vital role in providing examinations for professionals seeking to become members of EH profession.
Baba noted that with the MoU, there will be seamless regulation of examinations and indexing by the board, adding that the MoU will address the duplication of services suffered by trained members of the profession.
"The existing circumstance provides for indexing by WAHEB and EHCON. After the MoU, we will like to see a situation whereby the students will pay for single indexing and examination, which is in line with the initiative of President Bola Tinubu that agencies and international bodies must collaborate for the betterment of EH profession.
"This is also in line with the mandate signed by the Minister of Environment, Alhaji Balarabe Abbas Lawal," he added.
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