By Chimaobi Nwaiwu

Students of Urban Girls Secondary School Fegge Onitsha listening, during the flag-off of Campaign for Hygiene and Proper Refuse Disposal conducted by NOA.

To—inculcate the habit of cleanliness and observing proper hygiene in school children and their teachers, the National Orientation Agency, NOA, has taken its Campaign for Hygiene and Proper Refuse Disposal to secondary and primary Schools in Anambra State, with the Onitsha South Local Government Area   NOA flagging off the campaign weekend at Urban Girls Secondary School,   Fegge, and Zik Avenue Primary School Fegge, Onitsha respectively.

NOA said it is worried that Nigerians have relaxed the culture of hand washing and other hygienic practices they imbibed during the time Ebola Virus Disease was ravaging the country and other African countries probably because Nigeria has been declared Ebola free, and therefore it decided to remind Nigerians again that hand washing and other hygienic practices should be part of their lives.

The Agency is also using the campaign to remind and educate Nigerians on the flood alert/warning given to fifteen states of the country by National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, of which Anambra State is inclusive, saying that it accounted for the sensitization and the awareness campaign.

Speaking with  South East Voice, during the campaign, Chief Orientation and Mobilization Officer,   for Onitsha South Council Area, Mr. Ndubisi Nwokeabia said that they chose secondary and primary schools to flag off the Hygiene and Proper Refuse Disposal campaigns because it is the students and pupils that fall into the age bracket of people that are involved in refuse disposal in their respective families.

“These programmes are expected to inculcate in the people the habit of cleanliness and proper hygiene, just as it is also designed to discourage indiscriminate dumping of refuse into canals, drainages and water ways. It is expected that these children and teachers will carry the message to their family members and friends and help in stimulating the opening of drainages” he said.

On flood alert, he said that it is part of NOA’s function to sensitize and enlighten the people on government policies and programmes, and the issue of flood alert which Anambra state is one of the states earmarked for possible flooding and Onitsha South is within the river rine area, and therefore, there is need to sensitize and mobilize the people to get prepared for possible occurrence of flooding.

“We decided to educate these school children that the refuse they throw into the gutters and water ways were not disposed, rather they transferred them to another person’s house and compound, and most of the refuse block the drainage systems and aggravates flooding of our environments.

“When we finish with the schools, we will be meeting with the landlords associations, then we will move over to the market, but we want to get the children informed because they are the vehicle through which the campaign will get to their parents and their siblings, their neighbours and again we want to catch them young. If they get used to it when they are young, it will continue to be part of them when they become adults”.

Principal of Urban Girls Secondary School Dr. Mrs. Angela Obumse and the Head Teacher of Ziks Avenue Primary School Fegge, Rose Nwaorah expressed satisfaction with NOA’s decision to kick-start the all important campaign in secondary and primary schools, saying it was a wise decision that will yield positive fruits in encouraging proper hygiene and cleanliness in the schools and at homes of the students.