The Environmental Health Officers' Registration Council of Nigeria has lamented that no city in the country has a functional sewage treatment plant, resulting in indiscriminate disposal of raw faeces in many bodies of water across the country by unscrupulous sewage vendors.

Registrar of the council, Mr. Augustine Ebisike, said only Asokoro, Wuse and Maitama districts in Abuja city centre have functional sewage systems.

The consequence of this nationwide, he noted, was the "un-abating assault on our people by faecal-oral diseases, resulting in huge medical bills and loss of income due to incessant illnesses."

He stated these in Ilorin, Kwara State, at the flag-off of a one-week training programme for Environmental/Sanitation Officers. The mandatory continued education programme also covered litigation in environmental health, professional ethics, among others.

The registrar equally tasked states of the federation to invest in environmental health by putting in place effective sanitation mechanisms through the engagement of professional environmental officers.

He said the number of environmental officers in Kwara State and other states is "abysmally very low" compared to the population, saying ample investment in environment would improve the health of the populace.

"We call on all state governments to review the policy which lay emphasis on curative health instead of preventive health, resulting in huge cost to government.

"We have failed to roll back malaria which the profession predicted from the start of the programme due to the emphasis on curative health instead of prevention. Now, we have millions of bed nets imported for this purpose which have reached their end of shelf lives and are posing environmental health challenge with regards to their disposal," he said.

He restated that environmental health services had "drastically deteriorated"due to the general neglect of preventive health by successive governments.

Ebisike stated further: "To worsen the situation of environmental health across the nation, states and local governments have for many years laid embargo on employment of Environmental Health Officers who are empowered by the law to enforce sanitation standards.