The Rivers State commissioner for environment, Dr. Nyema Weli has warned residents of Port Harcourt and its environment to desist from littering the area with wastes.
Dr. Weli gave the warning during an interactive session with waste contractors in Port Harcourt.
The Environment boss who disclosed that the essence of the meeting with the contractors was to know their handicaps, challenges in the evacuation of refuse and proffer solutions towards it, stressed that refuse is an integral part of everyone and not peculiar to big men, market people, restaurants among others, rather a collective one.
“We can do better when we work collectively with zeal to get rid of wastes in our environment which will affect them as well as use an open van for evacuation of refuse to prevent it from littering the environment. We should be conscious to know that good environment is a source of good health and ensure the responsibility to change the culture of dirtiness to cleanliness, sensitize ourselves on how to clean our surroundings,” he stated, stressing that government was planning to put up an institutional framework to ensure clean environment as well as develop transfer stations where some persons in a particular area will dump their refuses, construct roads leading to the refuse dumping sites for easy evacuation of waste.
Some of the contractors who spoke at the interactive section such as Mr. S. B Obinna, Mr. Tolofari, among others, appealed to government to provide close and enough dumping sites, maintenance of roads leading to dumping sites for easy evacuation of refuse, more funds and medical facilities for their workers as well as sensitize public on the need for clean environments and how to dump their refuses because most of them have bad attitudes of dumping their refuses. ###
Emeka Jilly Ejiowhor
