The Sole Administrator of Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA), Bro. Felix Obuah, has warned motor mechanics and other artisans, who operate along major streets and roads in Port Harcourt and its environs to stop dumping wastes indiscriminately.
Obuah in a statement in Port Harcourt, regretted that roadside mechanics and some artisans have continued to litter the roads and streets with solid waste despite repeated warnings by the agency.
He said the agency’s monitoring team would soon commence unscheduled visits in areas like the Port Harcourt township axis, Ikokwu and the entire Diobu area of the city, Rumuola; Rumuomasi; Oyigbo, Eleme; Elelenwo; Woji, Slaughter, Odili Road, Trans Amadi, Aba Road, Amadi Ama, Oil Mill and Rumukurusi to monitor the sanitary activities of the mechanics and artisans.
The RIWAMA boss noted that the agency had repeatedly placed advertorials, jingles, messages and awareness campaigns advising residents and those doing business in the state to keep their surroundings and business premises clean, but these efforts apparently fell on deaf ears.
Obuah drew the attention of roadside mechanics and artisans to the recent flooding in Port Harcourt, warning that the continued dumping of solid wastes into gutters and other waterways could frustrate RIWAMA’s effort to control further flooding in the city.
The RIWAMA boss urged mechanics and artisans still operating on roadsides to find safer places to do their work and properly manage their wastes and urged them to make it a routine exercise to properly bag their wastes and dump same at government approved receptacles only, at the close of business, while charging them to report unrepentant ones among them to the agency for immediate action.
While regretting that the indiscriminate dumping of wastes by mechanics and artisans arbitrarily would deface Port Harcourt and frustrate the efforts of the state government to return the State capital to its Garden City status, he called on them to reciprocate the efforts of Governor Nyesom Wike who has given all necessary support to the agency, to keep the State clean at all times.