The federal government has lamented that many structures put in place, especially the culture of hand washing during the COVID-19 epidemic has not be sustained.

Speaking at the celebration of the Global Hand Washing Day in Abuja, the Deputy Director, Sport and Health Department, Ministry of Education, Akinba Omolewa said: “With what we experienced, one would have expected that after the COVID-19 experience that this hand washing should have continued, but we see that all the structures that were kept during the time has been dismantled.”

She disclosed that the ministry is fully committed to this programme because it has to do with the Nigeria children, noting that: “Though parents are teaching their children to wash their hands but once they get to school, the teacher in the classroom have to take the task of reinforcing the importance of students washing their hands regularly to prevent them from diseases like cholera, respiratory diseases and others”.

She said “the education ministry is trying by all means to sensitize both teachers and students. On their health grounds that they should learn how to keep the environment clean, and wash their hands regularly”.

In his remarks the Director, Pollution Control and Environmental Health Department, Ministry of Environment, Olubunmi Olusayan said: “We are dedicated to promote awareness and understanding of the importance of hand washing as an effective and affordable ways of preventing diseases and to save lives.

“In other to kick start this year event , we started with our children, true to the fact that children as we know are agent of change. Once you imbibed the principle of hand washing, we can be sure that it will spread and that is why today we are happy to bring our children from selected schools in Abuja, first of all, to assess their knowledge of the importance of washing, to assess when do they need to wash their hands in acceptable way that will lead to disease prevention”.

This year’s Global Hand washing Day is themed “Clean hands are within reach”. The campaign says, “Through strong leadership and collective efforts, we can close gaps in access and practice to achieve hand hygiene for all. Everyone has a role to play to ensure clean hands are within reach.”