Sanitation: RSESA Scores Oyigbo Low

The Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State has been declared a disaster zone following the poor sanitary culture of the people.

The sole administrator of the Rivers State Environmental Sanitation Authority (RSESA), Mr. Ade Adeogun made the declaration while speaking to newsmen during last Saturday’s sanitation exercise.

Mr. Adeogun rated compliance by residents of Oyigbo as below average.

“We are here to monitor the exercise in Oyigbo and what we have seen in Oyigbo is  disappointing” he said.

He said though the festive season might have affected compliance but that the people in Oyigbo were behaving as if they were not part of Rivers State.

“First, we don’t think the people in Oyigbo realize that Oyigbo is part of Rivers State because they have a different waste culture which is very poor” he said.

On the perceived sabotage of the exercise in the state by the elites and other powerful individuals, the sanitation boss explained that waste was generated by individuals and not by the elite or power holders alone.

He said that every individual that generates waste was expected to handle such waste, so it has nothing to do with the elite.

“You can see that most of the defaulters today were not only the elites but members of the public who are non-challant about the exercise,” he said.

On the security challenges facing the authority especially on sanitation days, Mr Adeogun said. “One thing we will not do is we will not turn ourselves into a militant organization because of security challenges, we believe that work is in progress”.

He said the authority would achieve more by communicating and using enforcement of the law without using force.

He promised to revisit Oyigbo in the near future to ensure that the people of the area turned a new leaf.