Some residents of the satellite towns of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, have called the attention of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and other relevant agencies to what they describe as ineffective disposal of solid wastes in the suburbs.
They observe that there is urgent need for the board to explore better options in waste management techniques to make the suburbs free from the outbreak of diseases.
Mr Tajudeen Haruna, a resident of Tungan-Maje village, Gwagwalada Area Council, expressed concern about the heaps of refuse in the area which he said could expose the residents to ill-health.
“The usual practice in this area is that residents will dump the refuse at a designated spot by the road side to be evacuated by the area council at the end of the week but the solid wastes can remain there more than necessary,’’ he said.
Mrs Joy Chukwuemeka, another resident in Kubwa, a satellite town in FCT, said there was rampant indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the area.
She called on relevant management agencies to improve on the evacuation of the refuse, saying “for a month, the waste in this area has not been collected.’’
But Mr Ridwan Aliyu, a resident of Karmo near Abuja, said residents were not helping the government in providing a clean and healthy environment.
“The people of this area rather prefer to dump refuse on the ground or road side, since there is a truck that comes to collect refuse heaped along the road.
“As it is now, the waste collection point has become a problem on its own.
“In the morning, we cannot stay here at the bus stop because of the stench emanating from the refuse,’’ Aliyu said.
An environmentalist, Habib Omotosho, therefore, called for a law to ban people from disposing solid wastes indiscriminately.
Omotosho, the National Coordinator, the Environmental Advancement Initiatives, a non-governmental organisation, said “observation shows that household waste disposal involves children, house helps and maids whose attitude to waste disposal is lackadaisical.
“Waste legislation should ban such class of people and make it mandatory that only the adults should be involved in household waste disposal.’’
According to him, there is need to apply the polluter-must-pay principle as well as upward review of sanitation fees to generate revenue and ensure adequate funding of the waste management agency.
He advocated collaboration between the relevant government’s agencies and stakeholders in the environment sector to tackle urban waste problems.
“Urban waste management requires the concern of government, businessmen, politicians, religious organisations, civil servants, men, women, the rich, the poor and a host of other groups.
“All these must be brought together by government policy and legislation to work together as welfare officers to attack vigorously the urban waste problems.
“The quest for an effective solid waste management policy will lead to a search for a comprehensive and coordinated planning,’’ he said.
Another environmentalist, Mr Abdullahi Aremu, advised governments at all levels to organise and empower women organisations to form waste management teams to ensure close watch on proper and efficient solid waste disposal.
Aremu, the Director-General, Advocacy for Environmental and Sanitation Integrity, a non-governmental organisation, said the formation became necessary to ensure safe environment in FCT suburbs.
“Women are known to be very committed and thorough in the areas of environmental cleanliness and clean up; again, they are more at home than their male counterparts.
“Women need to be organised and empowered to constitute waste management marshals to mount surveillance within the neighbourhood.
“If they are properly organised and re-orientated, they can provide the much needed sanitary watchdogs and controllers,’’ he said.
He said the existing women organisations such as Women Traders’ Association, Muslim Women Organisation and Christian Women Organisation could be of help in managing solid waste disposal.
Apart from this, Aremu said for effective solid waste management system, the citizens must be mobilised through sensitisation environmental education.
He said sensitisation would assist in bringing about adequate citizen participation on waste management system.
However, the immediate past Minister of Environment, Mrs Amina Mohammed, had recently in Abuja restated the Federal Government’s commitment to protecting the environment to achieve sustainable development.
“Empowering people, taking climate action and protecting the environment are at the heart of changing the new narrative and putting Federal Ministry of Environment firmly on the path to sustainable development,’’ she said.
She recalled that after Nigeria signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the ministry embarked on nationwide tour to assess the gravity of environmental challenges and interact with the concerned communities.
According to her, critical national environmental issues formed the main focus of government’s efforts.
She noted that the ministry was working towards framing new narrative and redefining environmental governance.
Apart from ill health arising from environmental pollution, the minister identified environmental degradation as the root cause of insecurity and conflicts such as BokoHaram insurgency, militancy and the conflict between our herdsmen and farmers.
“Therefore, to improve security, the environment must be taken into account in the development agenda,’’ she said.
Worried by the reports on indiscriminate disposal of solid wastes in the FCT suburbs, the FCT Administration, therefore, gave a directive for the evacuation of solid waste dumped on the median along the roads in Nyanya, Karu and Jikwoyi, suburbs of Abuja.
Mrs Oluwatoyin Olanipekun, the director of AEPB, said the board had to come in on the instructions of the Minister of FCT, Malam Muhammad Bello.
She, nonetheless, advised the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) to wake up to its responsibility by regularly clearing the refuse.
“AMAC has not woken up to its responsibility of promptly evacuating several tons of refuse being generated in the suburbs on daily basis which has caught the attention of the FCT Administration,’’ she said.
She emphasised that the intervention had become necessary to prevent any outbreak of avoidable epidemic in the suburbs and Abuja.
She also advised the residents of the suburbs to assist the authorities by properly packaging the solid wastes in bags for easy collection and disposal.
