Until the enactment of law by the Rivers State government to make it compulsory for residents to bag waste, the environmental hazards caused by such waste can be seen than imagined.

Again, since the law carries with it heavy fines or imprisonment, it brings about the consciousness to keep the environment clean at all times. This laudable innovation was perhaps one of the proactive measures initiated by the Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi -led administration to bring Port Harcourt back to its lost glory of what was known as ‘the Garden City’ of blessed memory. Anyone who perhaps left the city about six months ago before the introduction of bagging of waste, would agree today that the streets, major roads and drainages are no longer adorned with waste such as sachet water bags and the drainages contain little or no waste in them.

A cross-section of residents on most streets in the Borikiri axis of Port Harcourt township namely, Harold Wilson, Etche, Kolokuma,  Churchill Streets and residents in Ndoki Housing Easte, have confirmed that the bagging of waste was a policy in the right direction. Apart from the recent inauguration of three agencies in the state to combat the menace of refuse, the residents in the Ndoki Housing Estate agreed that this proactive measures will help to reduce the environmental hazard caused by waste, when not properly disposed off at its dump sites.

A resident in Ndoki Housing Estate, Mr. Godwin Koko said the sight of refuse in the estate has disappeared since the introduction of bagging of waste. He said the bagging of waste are more safe to human health as the stench emanating from refuse dumps in the Housing Estate has been reduced to the barest minimum. However, Koko said the waste management agency recently inaugurated, should swing into action to actualize the waste-to-wealth dream of the present administration, Chief Tonye Briggs, a resident in the same Housing Estate shared this optimism, but said, the biggest single reason why the waste management agency should swing into action is that, the volume of waste is high in the estate and when properly harnessed could bring another source of internally generated revenue for the state.

Another resident, Madam Rachel Afonyamieka said, the bagging of waste is cheaper, arguing that, before the waste could be trampled upon by motorists, the contractors must have carried the bags containing them in their trucks. She further reasoned that with the introduction of the bagging of waste,  most streets and motorable roads are no longer littered with refuse unlike before. She said, the refuse while being conveyed to the dump site overflowed  to create public eye sore and sometimes the bulk of the littered waste cause vehicular traffic jam on the high way.

However, the Njemanze Street residents seem to have a different opinion about the unauthorised dump site near their neighbourhood which they say, had made life unbearable for them. A resident Mr. Napoleon Oyepho said most of the refuse disposed at the empty space at the Njemanze water front are not bagged hence the stench emanating from the refuse had caused health hazard. The resident and the contractors Oyepho said, should be blamed for dumping refuse at the open space created by Njemanze water front make-shift buildings which was demolished by the state government for the purpose of urban renewal.

Another employee of a national newspaper, who spoke under condition of anonymity said the refusal of the residents to bag the waste from their homes had for a long time caused residents a lot of inconveniences and expressed fear of outbreak of epidemic, if the situation was not checked. He called on the waste management Agency to impose sanction and bring to book residents responsible for disposing of waste on authorized dump sites. Mrs. Umorem Akpan a food vendor who corroborated the argument of the employee said those who violate the prohibition of disposing of waste without baging should be fined according to the law. She said, if the waste were bagged the odour emanating from this temporary dump site could not have been so offensive as to cause near health hazard.

Mr. Ade Adeyeogun, Sole Administrator of the newly inaugurated State Waste Management Agency said the agency would soon swing into action to correct some of the anormaly associated with waste disposal in Port Harcourt and environs.

He said the agency was not ready to sack any contractor, but appealed to the contractors to redouble their effort to clear bags containing waste some times left by the road side for several days at residential areas.

Ade Adeyeogun further appealed to residents to imbibe the spirit of cleaniness in order to restore Port Harcourt to its garden city status. He said the agency would bring the relevant law to bear on residents who cultivate the habit of disposing waste without using the approved bags. The spokesman for the state Environmental Sanitation Authority, Mr. Olalekan Ige who corroborated the warning of Ade Adeyeogun explained that the Environmental Sanitation Authority mandated some refuse contractors to use some dump sites as a stop gap measure. He argued that due to challenges faced by the authority with regards to available dump sites, it allowed before now, some sites like the Njemanze water front. He said the refuse contractors have been directed to go back to the Rumuolumeni area where a  permanent dump site has been provided.

Ige advised residents of the Njemanze area to report any one dumping refuse with or without the approved bags to the relevant authority for prosecution, as the area has been fumigated.

He said the introduction of baging of waste and the promulgation of the law to enforce it, has brought maximum value to waste management in the state. Noting that the bagging of waste is cost effective and provides investment opportunity for investors that repeatedly overlooked the waste to wealth initiative of the state government.