Edith CHUKU
One of the liabilities the suspended governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, would likely inherit from the Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ette Ibas Ekwe (rtd), when called back to office would be refuse heaps.
A lot of efforts would have been required to restore the state from garbage city to its garden city status, as some parts of the state, mostly the garden city-Port Harcourt, under Ibas in the past three months have been overtaken by refuse heaps with no sign of evacuation.
As at Thursday, the site provided for waste disposal at the Eneka First Market Junction, was full and had taken over almost the entire lane of the entire road, resulting in gridlock and making it difficult for motorists to access the road.
Residents revealed that for over three weeks, they had not seen waste evacuators and their truck. According to them, some scavengers made efforts to push some of the waste out from the road but their effort yielding very little result.
The situation was same in Igwuruta and the Iwofe-St. John’s axis of Port Harcourt. Repeated warning against dumping of wastes on the median appears to have fallen on deaf ears, as some residents have refused to refrain from indiscriminate dumping of refuse.
So much have been said and written about the state of environment disaster posed by the myriad of refuse dumps in various parts of Port Harcourt, but the SOLAD appears unconcerned about the situation.
Many years ago, Port Harcourt, the capital city, used to be known as the garden city. Business owners would lock their shops for clean up exercise every Thursday and last Saturdays, there were sanitary officers moving from house to house to ensure that people kept their surroundings clean.
There were road sweepers and you would see them very early in the morning, sweeping the roads. Lately, some areas in Port Harcourt have become an eye sore, with lots of mosquitoes, flies, rats and the stench has been horrible.
Residents are begging the sole administrator to interface with contractors to ensure prompt evacuation of waste.
TNN made effort to get the reaction of the former acting Sole Administrator of the Rivers State Waste Management Agency RIWAMA, Mr. Prince Ohia, through a telephone call, but his response was, “you will not know the value of what you have till you lose it.”
Here are the reactions of some respondents who spoke with our correspondent.
Mr. Kinika Friday, “we don tire to complain, we don talk tire, make them help us commot this dustbin here, eh dey worry. The smell sef na problem. See, people dey even sell food here.
“Eh Dey cause hold up. The thing dey worry, to pass here you must waka on top dirty, haba, eh no good.
“Make government, people wey dey in-charge of this thing help Eneka people abeg.”
Mrs. Vero Emmanuel, “it have been long they removed dustbin here, yesterday (Wednesday) na two aboki people help push am inside small.
“Fly wey dey from here come out no be small thing. Eh no good.
“The only thing I wan beg na make them commot the dustbin na my own be that.”
Mr Charles Nnadi, “it’s a very terrible situation. There are lots of flies, the smell is terrible, we want the sole administrator to see how he can empower the contractors or call them to order to ensure that we have a safe and clean environment.”
