Suleiman Anyalewechi, Aba
The seemingly intractable problem of inadequate refuse disposal in Abia state, especially Aba the commercial nerve center and its attendant poor sanitary condition, would soon be over, the authorities have assured.
NewsCritic online reports that the Abia State Governor Dr Alex Otti, worried about the poor sanitary conditions of major towns in the state, occasioned by the twin problems of lack of adequate waste disposal equipment and low morale amongst waste disposal workers had a few weeks ago, declared a state of emergency in the sector.
To tackle the problems, government has begun a massive production of public refuse collection buckets, otherwise known as receptacles, to be deployed at strategic places in Aba and Umuahia in particular.
In an interview with the press on Tuesday July 4 in Aba , Engr. Onuoha Okorie , Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of the contracting firm handling the production of an initial 100 units of the receptacles, said the project is targeted at arresting the perennial problem of indiscriminate refuse dumps associated with most of the cities in the state.
According to Okorie, the receptacles which will come with a very high quality, and durability when deployed and operational will go a very long way in improving the sanitary condition of major cities in the state.
“For now, government has placed order for the production of initial One hundred units of the receptacles, which we believe can significantly tackle the problem.
But as time goes on, we will be targeting more to cover every part of the state. About 70 of the receptacles may be deployed to Aba and about 30 to Umuahia. We started the production last week, and we have achieved so far 20% success. We are not joking with this project, because we are aware that government is serious about the issue of poor refuse disposal in the state, “Engr Okorie stated.
He called for the cultivation of a good maintenance culture as one of the most veritable means of ensuring the success of the policy.
“Although, what we are producing are of high quality, but we are also calling for good maintenance culture. It is more cost effective to maintain the buckets than build new ones,” Okorie noted
He blamed the failure of past efforts at tackling poor sanitary conditions in our cities on lack of political will, adding that there is a serious commitment on the part of the present regime to end the ugly narrative.
