Bayelsa Declares War On Waste

Worried by the poor waste disposal system, the Bayelsa State Government, has declared a state of emergency on the issue of waste management in Yenagoa, the state capital, and its environs.

To this end, it has unveiled a new environmental sanitation policy empowering the State Environmental Sanitation Authority as an autonomous body.

It has also cancelled all waste disposal contracts in the state capital.

The Chairman of the Sanitation authority, Chief Ebifemowei Abel, disclosed this while briefing journalists in Yenagoa last Thursday.

Abel, flanked by Prince Ebitimi Angbare, the former governorship flagbearer of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the 2007 poll, said: “The state government has declared a state of emergency on the issue of waste in the state.

“It is not going to be business as usual. We met a very dirty state capital and we have vowed to institute a system that will ensure that the state capital attains the status of one of the cleanest in the country.”

He said that the new sanitation policy included the introduction of a new parking rules for all motorists in the state capital and a new bagging system for refuse.

He said that a task force had been set up to arrest individuals littering the road with empty water sachets and other waste materials,  adding that  6 p.m. and 7 p.m. had been designated for the disposal of refuse at public bins.

According to him, the new sanitation policy was conceived to improve the sanitary condition of the state.

The chairman directed all local government councils to henceforth, take the monthly sanitation exercise seriously, warning that a team would be dispatched to all the councils to monitor compliance.

He also warned that henceforth, persons who dumped sand and gravel on the roads and streets indiscriminately, would face the full wrath of the law.