Steps to ensure disease-free and clean environment
There are two schools of thought making the rounds with regard to how to tackle the ever-growing menace of environmental pollution and filth that have engulfed parts of the nation. While one group maintains that the law enforcement agencies should get tough with people who are found to be littering indiscriminately, the other group insists that there should be behavioural and attitudinal change.
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I must admit that both measures are important except that they must be put in perspective and be in sequence.
A sequence of three steps is required to bring about the needed environmental sanitation. They are arranged in order of importance. In other words, although the steps occur concurrently, if resources are to be allocated to them, they must be distributed in descending order with the first two taking a greater chunk of the resources.
Often times these measures have been tackled in a haphazard manner and the end result is that there is filth everywhere; a situation that has caused so much concern and embarrassment to city authorities. To state that our cities are engulfed in filth is to say the obvious.
Awareness creation
Awareness creation is the first step required to bring about behavioural change that will stop people from littering the environment. People must be educated continuously on the dangers associated with such malpractice. It may surprise readers to know that people indulge in certain behaviours simply because they do not understand the consequence of their actions. They certainly have to be educated.
How many people understand that a teaspoonful of faecal matter contains millions of disease-causing germs which, if not properly disposed of, may find its way to the water we drink during the rainy season? If not properly disposed of, this faecal matter will be visited by houseflies which will then come to our homes and contaminate the food we eat, thereby predisposing the individual and even the entire community to dangerous diarrhoeal diseases.
Improper disposal of household waste and filthy environment provide fertile grounds for the breeding of mosquitoes which cause malaria.
More than 70 per cent of the diseases we suffer from can be attributed to these insanitary practices. A lot of money, which could have been channelled to provide jobs and ensuring improvement in the economy, is wasted in the treatment of these preventable diseases.
Without this understanding, even if people are arrested and thrown into jail, they will return and continue their bad habit and rather begrudge the law enforcement authorities for showing high-handedness.
Enabling environment
Having created awareness, the next step is to assist the person to do the right thing. The person is now convinced that he or she does not have to litter the environment. But where is the nearest place to dump refuse? Sometimes you will walk several metres looking for a refuse dump and you will not find any. A friend of mine who had arrived from overseas told me about his frustration when he wanted to dispose of a small refuse he carried when he was shopping in an open market.
He said he walked and looked all round for a convenient place to drop this waste but did not find any. What next? If this person is not a “man of God” he would definitely look left and right and at the blind side of onlookers, dump this waste anywhere. Luckily, he said, he eventually carried this rubbish home for safe disposal. For him, he would rather carry it home than dispose of it indiscriminately, which is an example worthy of emulation.
City authorities must ensure that waste collection bins are placed at vantage points for those who want to do the right thing. Elsewhere, in the more developed countries, there will not be any justification for anyone to litter the street as waste collection bins can be found anywhere one wants to place rubbish.
Areas such as marketplaces which are more likely to be littered should have more refuse collection bins commensurate with the activities being carried out there. The cost of providing these facilities together with the subsequent waste management may be far lower than the cost of treating the diseases that will result as a result of the filth accumulation.
Legislation
Of course, there may be a few individuals who, no matter how much education is given and despite the creation of an enabling environment, will still want to be notorious and intentionally litter the environment. I have heard some people argue out what would be the use of refuse disposal companies if the environment was always clear of filth.
If they are really serious, then it is this group that the law enforcement agencies should target. In the past there used to be these “summoners” who went round people’s homes to summon them to court if they kept anything unhygienic. People are calling for their comeback. Although this idea sounds laudable, city authorities should spend more money on awareness creation and the provision of an enabling environment.
The writer is the Medical Director, Royal Medical Agency and Clinic. Email: [email protected]