Refuse heaps trigger fear in Umuahia

Residents of Umuahia, the Abia State capital, have said they face health risk if the growing dumps of refuse in various parts of the city are not immediately evacuated.

Southern City News observed that most refuse buckets positioned at strategic locations in the cities had been burnt by residents in their attempt to decongest the overflowing wastes.

The sanitary situation in the state, it was gathered, worsened following the failure of the Waste Management Agency to pay workers’ salaries for months.

ADVERTISEMENT

A resident who pleaded anonymity called on government to take urgent steps to remedy the situation to avoid an outbreak of epidemic in the city.

He blamed the worsening sanitary situation “on party patronage”, arguing that waste management should be top on the priority list of government.

He also said the non-introduction of two systems of refuse disposal contributed to the worsening situation.

“The state should introduce degradable and non-degradable items and convert the degradable to manure and with the manure, begin the manufacture of organic fertiliser while the non-degradable should be buried,” he said.

Another resident, a housewife said, “Even the Bible says that cleanliness is next to godliness”, wondering why Abia, which prides as the number one state, could not be number one in cleanliness.

She said, “I wonder when we degenerated to this level. The stench alone is unbearable. Refuse has almost taken over the roads making it difficult for vehicles to pass. It is really a disaster.

“Government should call those who are supposed to evacuate the waste to inject more competent hands if they can no longer do their jobs.”

When contacted, the General Manager of the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency, Mr. Iyke Apugo, said the lack of funds was affecting the operations of the agency.

He said the drop in the allocation accruing to the state had badly affected the operations of the agency.

Apugo noted that despite the non-availability of funds, employees of the agency had been trying to prevent it from becoming worse.

He pleaded with residents to exercise patience as efforts were being made by government to tackle the situation.

Apugo said the new government in the state was trying to settle and had not received any allocation, assuring that the situation would soon be addressed.