By Anita Chukwuma
Delta State Ministry of Environment has taken further step at ensuring environmental sustainability by embarking on sensitisation campaign on a clean environment to schools in the state.
The Director of Waste Management in the ministry, Mr. Lucky Adah, led staff of the ministry to the Asagba Mixed Secondary School in Asaba, the state capital, during the campaign on best sanitation practices.
He said that the school awareness campaign was to sensitise the students on environmental management practices, adding that the awareness campaign would be extended to other schools across the state.
The director stated that effective waste management would help to promote a clean, safe and healthy environment for learning and other business activities, saying that students should separate pet bottles for recycling, while the other wastes should be bagged and deposited in waste bins for proper disposal by waste collectors in approved dump sites.
He further stated that personal hygiene was very important because it involved keeping one’s external body clean and healthy to promote and preserve overall health and well-being of the body.
Mr. Adah maintained that the sensitisation campaign would enhance attitudinal rebirth in pupils and students and enjoined Deltans and residents in the state to cooperate with the state government in keeping the environment clean.
In a presentation, Mr. Sylvester Ofuyekpone, Chief Scientific Officer in the ministry, enjoined students to shun indiscriminate dumping of refuse to enhance aesthetic values and environmental sustainability.
He added that air pollution was a threat to the overall well-being of people as air pollutants (gases), including fume from vehicles, smoke and dust were injurious.
He advised students against burning wastes, saying that that excessive release of the gases into the atmosphere would deplete the ozone layer, resulting in climate change and also reduce the quality of air for breathing which could have adverse effects on human, plants and animals.
The principal of the school, Mrs. Florence Eluaka, appreciated the ministry for the sensitisation campaign, saying that it would enhance personal hygiene among students in schools and their respective homes by keeping their environment clean.
Mrs. Eluaka further stated that the sensitisation campaign should be a continuous one as a clean environment is necessary for teaching and learning, just as she said that cleanliness is next to godliness.”
