CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

It is believed that God created man representative to be in control of the environment and make the best out of it. But man in his search for daily bread, quest for knowledge and materials wealth, has turned round to pollute the beautiful environment. From the earliest times man has been striving to control the environment. But as said earlier, man owns the health and life. That is why he found himself from the dragon headed problems he has caused himself in recent times. Environmental sanitation has become a topical subject at international, national state and local spheres. This is aim at initiating action to arrest the fast deteriorating environmental health status worldwide. In Nigeria, today the congestion of people in urban areas which is mainly as a result of rural urban migration the concentration of industrial establishment and share increase in population have made the control of the environment imperative and equally challenging. To improve the general environmental sanitation of the major town in Nigeria has always constituted a big problem to both individual and government with the result that the town/cities are being strangulated by things generated by the inhabitant. The result of this condition is environmental pollution in all its ramification.

The problem of pollution has also found its way into the political area and every community in every state has been confronted difficulties of his environment. To the man concern regarding pollution is the adverse effect exerted on the health of the people. The problems of poor sanitation and unhygienic behaviour among the majority of Nigerians are so serious that the federal military government had to come into check the situation towards achieving “health for all by the year 2013” as declared by the world health organization (WHO). Several strategies were mapped out and adopted by the federal government (the military regime in 2013 to achieve this objective. Consequently, the environmental sanitation programmes were mounted throughout the federation. This was followed by the establishment of the “task force on environmental sanitation” at both state and local levels to coordinate this elaborate programme.

Environmental sanitation committees were appointed with members down from various walks of life. Serious sanitation were imposed on individuals public and private establishment or corporate bodies who fell short of the expected governments guidelines on environmental sanitation or health habits and practices. For instance, dirty filthy private premises dumping of refuse in unauthorized places. Urinating or defecating in public places were punishable by the fine ranging from N 100-1000, or punishment as the case may be. Food hygiene, street trading, unauthorized parking of vehicles were also areas of concern which were also embedded in WAI “War Against Indiscipline” meant to inculcate in people correct healthful living habits, attitude and practices. Later, incentives were put and the programme became competitive in nature among the various state and local government areas of the federal republic of Nigeria. Consciously or unconsciously, most of our town and cities were given some face-li for sometime. Health implication of their poor health habits and practices the motives of the environmental sanitation programme are oen misunderstood to their “statuquo” when they are no longer closely supervised. Infact, the problem of poor environmental sanitation and unhygienic behaviour among the majority of Nigerians have persisted despite the various sanctions or stringent measured taken by governments and other health agencies to enforce a change of attitude among the people. It is important to note too that all the while emphasis has been concern about the mass rural population or communities that contribute significantly to the urban populace, it then stands to reason to assert that the individuals home orientation would also be unconsciously exhibited in a new environment. Hence the neglect of the sanitation crusade at the grassroots level has made the sanitation eorts in most of our town and cities abortive.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

The main concern of the study, therefore is to identify and investigate and find out answer to the following sub problems. 1. The psychological impact of the programme on the life of people of Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. 2. The sociological effectiveness on the people of Oredo LGA by the environmental sanitation programme. 3. The eectiveness of the programme on the economic development of the community. 4. The eectiveness of the Oredo experiment on the physical development of the said community.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The central purpose of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of environmental sanitation programme in the study areas. The main purpose of the study is to; 1. Examine how environmental sanitation is carried out. 2. Investigate the factors militating against the effectiveness of environment sanitation 3. Provide information on how environmental sanitation can be improved upon 4. To investigate the role of government officials in environmental sanitation