Abia Govt will not relent on policy on environmental sanitation – Nwoke
The member representing Ohafia South State Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly, and the House Committee Chairman on Environment, Hon. Mba Kalu Nwoke, has said the state government will continue to push for a clean environment to improve the well being of residents.
Nwoke who spoke on Saturday shortly after monitoring the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in Umuahia the state capital, said Governor Alex Otti’s approach towards a clean environment is yielding positive results.
He commended residents for taking part in the exercise and advised defaulters to turn a new leave.
He said, “Today’s exercise was fantastic unlike what it used to be in the past months and it will always get better. Abia will get to a point where we don’t need to tell people to come out and clean their environment, but it will be a gradual process because the past government were sleeping over it.
“we thank the governor who have taken it upon himself to rewrite the story of Abia from being stinking state to state where one can even sleep on the street if he wishes.
“Of a particular note I must have to commend the owner of one polytext furniture company. He heard about the announcement that shop owners should clean up the drainage in front of their shops and he went ahead to clean up the drainage in front of his shop. We urge other shop owners to toe the same line”.
The Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Philemon Ogbonna, said he had observed during the exercise that Abians are cooperating, with government directive in keeping the environment clean.
The Commissioner who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Ikechukwu Oriuwa, said the government harmonized task force would go into action to ensure that some residents who have not complied with the “Operation Clean Your Gutters and Drains” directive will start immediately.
“They are some people who have decided not to obey the government directive even though we created a lot of awareness since the last two weeks for people to clean their gutter, but we observe that about fifteen per cent of the residents decided not to cooperate, so we have decided that we use our enforcement agencies to ensure that people clean their gutters, he said.
The Special Adviser to the governor on environment Prof. Ijeoma Iheukwumere, urge residents to clean their sanitary lanes, adding that sanitary inspectors will soon commence checks for compliance.
She said, “We are still begging residents to keep their environment clean because when they do it will help improve their health. Mosquitoes, flies and rodents will reduce in the state and the
rate of falling seek will also reduced.
“Sanitary inspectors will soon commence operations and they will be looking up on environmental cleanliness. They check gutters, toilets and sanitary lanes, that’s the government policy”.
Thirty four defaulters were arrested during the sanitation exercise for the month of March. Four people were discharged on health grounds by the Magistrate Onyinyechi Ibekwe, in charge of the mobile Court.