Talk About Sanitation Marshals, Not Cart Pushers

Going through the immediate past Wednesday edition of your paper, I came across a headline that captivated my attention; “RIWAMA Warns Cart Pushers To Steer off Streets”. I got to know that the Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA) under the leadership of Bro. Felix Obuah had, before now, ordered cart pushers to leave the streets and roads of Port Harcourt and its environ, an order which deadline ended February 17, 2020.
The waste management agency boss explained that the ban became necessary as the activities of the cart pushers have become a nuisance, turning some areas to an eyesore with indiscriminate dumping of refuse on the streets and roads.
In fairness to Obua, whose fears may not be far-fetched, I do not see the riddance of the cart pushers from the roads and streets of Port Harcourt as a panacea to the continuous ailing environmental state of the metropolitan capital city of the oil rich- state.
Instead, the realization of the adoption of sanitation marshals, will go a long way in solving the state’s sanitation problems. Recall that people were delighted with news of Rivers State government approving the appointment of sanitation marshals, which featured in your paper on Thursday, January 30, 2020. The subsequent approval that a bill be sent to the State House of Assembly to give legal backing to the appointments, gladdened their hearts the more.
Rather than chasing away these scavengers from their source of livelihood, it will be better to empower the sanitation marshals to check the activities of the former. With this in place, the state will not only have continued to sustain the economy of these peasants, it will have also created employment for the marshals thus providing a level playing ground for all.
I, therefore, suggest that the RIWAMA boss should consider hastening the bill that will give a legal backing to the marshals so they could be empowered to enforce the required sanitary practices and habits especially as it concerns strict compliance to the bagging of refuse, expected to be kept at authorised places for onward pick-up.
I hope that the coming of the sanitation marshals will, among other roles, end indiscriminate disposal of refuse on road medians and other unlawful places. Most importantly, ensure that residents of Port Harcourt city practise good sanitary habits.

By: Chinyere Ikpo, Ngbuoba.