By John Odhe, YENAGOA
Indiscriminate Waste disposal and inadequate refuse management has become a concern amongst residents of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
Although there are waste evacuation centres at strategic positions in the capital city, residents have developed the habit of throwing waste indiscriminately, thereby littering some streets and roads with unpalatable dirty sites.
Some concerned residents are calling for improved environmental sanitation practice and a more effective waste collection system.
Mrs Nnenna Okeke, a resident of Biogbolo community in Yenagoa, called for provision of more disposal points and greater commitment to proper waste management.
“I know that there are waste disposal points in different parts of the city but I think they are not enough.
“Again I blame many people over how they throw waste anyhow.
“Some persons don’t even care whether there are existence of waste disposal points. They drop waste any where, not minding the implications,” she said.
She advised that proper sanitation habit should be practiced at the home level, so that it would become a habit amongst residents wherever they found themselves.
She pointed out that government efforts would have little or no effects if the individual residents failed to imbibe proper environmental practice at home.
A trader at the busy Etegwe-Tombia Roundabout, Mr. Ezekiel Ojo, attributed the indiscriminate dumping of refuse to inadequate waste collection by those saddled with the responsibility to evacuate waste.
He called for provision of more waste disposal containers around market places where large scales of refuse are generated daily.
The concerned residents also enjoined the Bayelsa State Environmental Sanitation Authority to set up a task force to check violation of environmental laws including blocking of water channels.
