An environmental health expert at the University of Ibadan, Professor Mynepalli Sridhar has linked over 70 per cent of illnesses in the community to poor water quality, hygiene and environment.
Professor Sridhar spoke at the distinguished lecture series of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences; University of Ibadan entitled “Baths, Toilets, Sanitation and Hygiene –Evolutionary Trends Through human development” in Ibadan.
The don declared that many communicable diseases are contracted from poor environment, adding that poor sewage and waste control had also been a challenge to good health in many communities.
The expert, remarking that human body consist of a high percentage of water, said access to quality and enough water was also paramount for longevity and good quality of life.
He, however, expressed concern on quality of water people use in Nigeria, saying even after treatment, the water sometimes get contaminated in the courses of its distribution to homes.
Professor Sridhar also decried the quality of water in many streams in Nigeria, saying an assessment of the streams in Ibadan, for instance, found they were full of pollutants.
The expert stated that Nigeria’s poor environment, hygiene, water safety among others account for why it was missing in the 2017 quality of life index map.
The environmental health expert also stressed the need for government to tackling the problem of sewage in the country as well as harvesting of waste water for food production.
Head, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Dr Godson Ana stressed the need for individuals and communities to be hygiene conscious, saying good hygiene culture was fast fading out in the country.
According to him, “our inability to be hygiene-conscious has resulted in some of the reoccurring communicable diseases that we are having presently.”