Wagga City Council’s environmental health coordinator Sharomi Dayanand wins the 2022 NSW Environmental Health Professional of the Year award. Photo: Wagga City Council.
Wagga’s Sharomi Dayanand has picked up a prestigious state award that honours the 16 years of time and dedication she has put towards her environmental health career.
The Wagga City Council environmental health coordinator was honoured with the 2022 NSW Environmental Health Professional of the Year award for her consistent efforts and career achievements in her field.
Ms Dayanand was thrilled to win the distinguished award at the Environmental Health Australia conference last week.
“It was quite unexpected because the competition was really tough; there are a lot of environmental health officers across the state doing really magnificent work out in their communities,” Ms Dayanand said.
“It’s a privilege to receive this recognition because environmental health is such an important profession working in a preventative capacity and protecting our communities from environmental health issues and public health risks such as water-borne diseases or food-borne outbreaks.
“I believe that education is the most effective tool in helping businesses and the general public to really understand the ‘why’ behind the ‘whats’.
“It makes things so much easier because ultimately, environmental health officers are out there for the protection of the community.”
As an environmental health coordinator, Ms Dayanand has delivered several successful programs.
Ms Dayanand’s programs continue to benefit businesses and communities across NSW through the ‘Be Sharps Smart’ campaign and book, the retail sector food safety education program, ‘Scores on Doors’, and the ‘Stay safe and healthy with Needles the Echidna’ education tool.
The city council’s manager of environment and regulatory services, Mark Gardiner, said the state award acknowledged Ms Dayanand’s “valuable efforts in achieving environmental health outcomes for the community”.
He congratulated Ms Dayanand on her award and said she believes in improving environmental health standards and services to the community through advocacy, promotion and education.
“Alongside council’s environmental health team, she has delivered innovative ideas and services that minimise risk to public health, protect the environment and contribute towards achieving safer outcomes in our community,” Mr Gardiner said.
“This recognition highlights the preventative work undertaken by council’s environmental health team on a daily basis in responding to a wide range of complex environmental and human health issues while providing a professional service to the community.”
Click here to view Ms Dayanand’s Be Sharps Smart children’s book that increases sharps awareness, helping children across the community to identify incorrectly disposed sharps and take immediate action to step away and notify an adult.
Click here to view Ms Dayanand’s Stay Safe and Healthy with Needles The Echidna children’s book. It is a guide that encourages parents, caregivers and teachers to discuss the importance of safety regarding viruses and diseases.
Scores on Doors is the NSW hygiene and food safety scoring program that displays the results of regular inspections of food premises. It lets the public know how well local restaurants, takeaway shops, bakeries, pub bistros and cafes comply with NSW hygiene and food safety requirements.
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