The Rivers State Government says it will strengthen and implement existing legislation on waste management to maximize its economic potentials to the benefit of Rivers people.
To this end, the government plans to encourage and promote efficient use of resources through the ongoing initiative to ensure high quality recycling of ‘waste to wealth project.
The state Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike stated this while declaring open the 2015 Annual General Meeting and scientific conference of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Rivers State branch, in Port Harcourt.
Wike, who was represented by his Deputy, Dr. Ipalibo Harry Banigo, expressed appreciation to members of NMA for the sacrifice made towards building a healthy, safe and prosperous Rivers State.
The governor said the theme, “the impact of waste Management and Sanitation Practice on the Health of the citizens,” was in tandem with his administration’s desire to return Port Harcourt to its Garden City status, adding that the immediate intervention of his government saved the state from the embarrassing heap of refuse legacy left in the streets of Port Harcourt by the past administration.
He decried the indiscriminate attitude of citizens in disposing their waste into the drains, noting that the resultant effect of such acts is flooding, erosion, breeding of rectors, massive environmental degradation and pollution.
“As a government, we are concerned not only with the human and environmental health of our people but also their wellbeing and economic prosperity, the issue of effective waste management in our state requires a collective effort to tackle, as our new direction is to see the waste being generated as a resource with tremendous economic opportunities,” he declared.
The state chief executive further said his administration would support the capacity development of medical practitioners to deliver healthcare services to the people of the state.
Chairman of the occasion, and the state Head of Service, Mr. Rufus Godwins, represented by the former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Weli Ogbonda, said the 2015 Annual General Meeting was an event to fine-tune and appraise the activities of medical doctors for the year.
In his address, Dr. Furo Green, Chairman Nigeria Medical Association, Dr. Furo Green used the occasion to appreciate the Wike-led administration for the quick resolution of the inherited labour conflict in the primary healthcare sector, the resolve to renovate and equip some dilapidated general hospitals and abandoned roads projects.
Green noted that the governor’s effort at cleaning up the state shows that the health and wellbeing of the people is paramount, and urged the government to entrench a system that would allow steady growth and evolution of quality in the pursuit of efficiency and specialization.
According to Green, Nigerian Medical Association has carried out several free medical outreaches at the rural communities and prisons.
Highpoint of the event was a lecture by Mr. Emeka Ezeaku, with the theme: “Rethinking of Waste Management in Rivers State: The role of Public Private Partnership (PPP).”