The Managing Director, of Anambra State Waste Management Authority, ASWAMA, Mr Mike Ozoemena on Monday said the mandate of his agency under Governor Chukwuma Soludo, is to institutionalize an effective system of waste management, that will permanently deal with the perennial waste challenge in the state.
Last Saturday, the state observed its monthly sanitation exercise, which saw a total lockdown of movement between the hours of 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.
However, early Monday, heaps of refuse were seen at strategic spots across the state capital city of Awka, causing serious discomfort to the residents and constituting health hazards to the people.
But, in a chat with our correspondent, who caught him monitoring the evacuation of refuse at various points, the ASWAMA MD, Ozoemena regretted that waste has become an intractable problem because of the people’s attitude towards waste disposal.
He insisted that it is becoming impossible for waste management contractors to put their vehicles on the roads every day, due to the high cost of diesel and other challenges.
According to him, the people must learn to first baggage their waste and manage it before the contractors come around to pick up the waste, at an agreed time.
“Some of the contractors handling these wastes are on what we call ‘Pay Direct’ where the government is no longer paying the contractors. This means that the contractors are collecting the waste management revenue and using same to remove the waste.
”Unfortunately, with this arrangement, they cannot afford to be on the roads every day to pick up the waste with diesel at N1,300 per liter. This means that people must not every day, bring out waste every single day.
”The proper waste management system starts with the residents having a waste bin that they keep within their premises that is covered, where they dump their refuse, and at an agreed day, the waste collectors will come to pick them up.
“But our people are so undisciplined that they fail to do the right things,” he lamented.
Ozoemena said his agency is in discussion with the waste contractors to fashion out a working system that will integrate the right waste management attitude so that it will no longer be a haphazard thing.
He also harped on the need for the people to assist the government and the waste contractors by paying their waste management levies appropriately.
According to him, waste management is a collective effort, that requires input from the government, the people, and the contractors, insisting that at any time, the people abandon the effort to the government alone, it will not work.
“It is important that our people help the contractors by paying timeously, their sanitation levies.
“Prompt payment of sanitation levies ensures that the contractors deploy equipment on time to the litter bays to ensure that these dumps do not return to parts of the state again.
“It is equally important to plan with the contractors. That’s why we have the waste management committees, with the President Generals, market leaders, and other critical stakeholders.
“What we want to achieve is to institutionalize an organized waste management system and not this haphazard or ad-hoc thing that obtains presently.
“Mr. Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo wants a clean, green, and healthy Anambra State, that will be liveable and prosperous and a filthy environment does not support that vision.
“It therefore behooves us to do our part in building this liveable society, because if Anambra is better, it is for all of us and if it gets bad, all of us will suffer it,” Ozoemena posited.
