The Environmental Health Council of Nigeria (EHCON) has urged environmental health officers to enforce public health laws in every local government area to curb flooding across the country.

EHCON’s registrar Yakubu Baba gave the charge on Thursday during a news conference in Abuja, following the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) alert that no fewer than 178 LGAs were within the high probable flood risk areas.

Mr Baba said law enforcement, through the provision of necessary sanctions and fines, would make the people and communities take responsibility for their actions and inactions.

The registrar disclosed the minimum sanctions for violators of the law as payment of a N500,000 fine or six years’ imprisonment. He listed some environmental health offences as indiscriminate waste disposal and dumping of refuse in drainage.

According to him, the measure will reduce mortality and morbidity and prevent collateral damage due to flooding in Nigeria.

He attributed flooding and its consequences on citizens across the country to local and state governments’ negligence of environmental health services.

He listed blockage of the drainage systems as the top contributing factor to flooding in Nigeria.

“This happens because people are taking waste consciously to their backyard. Responsible leaders and local governments have invested a lot of money to construct the drainage systems, but most communities see such facilities as temporary dump sites,” stated Mr Baba.

He added, “I call on environmental officers working in local governments communities to apply necessary sanctions to violators of the law, to serve as the first responsibility we are carrying out as a council. In response to the flooding alert, the council has activated its emergency management response system to mitigate the challenge.”

(NAN)