Following the appearance of black soot in Port Harcourt city and its environs, the Rivers State Sanitation marshall volunteer, have called on mobile food vendors in the city to ensure proper coverage of food items during operations.
Coordinator of the group, Prince Sodin Akiagba, who said this in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, said that proper coverage of food items had become necessary to avoid contamination.
Prince Akiagba also said that residents of Port Harcourt city and environs must be environmentally conscious in their daily activities. “What we are saying is that, people should be environmentally friendly in their activities. People must desist from burning their waste, while those doing business in Port Harcourt should ensure that their wastes are properly disposed of to avoid creating problems in the city” he said.
He said that his group is partnering with environmental health officers to arrest and prosecute anyone found burning wastes.
Prince Akiagba said that the campaign would be extended to all abattoirs across the city of Port Harcourt and environs stressing that operators of abattoirs where tyres are continuously burnt will be arrested and prosecuted.
The volunteer’s co-ordinators also called on the naval authorities to increase their surveillances around the creeks with a view to tracking down operators of illegal refineries in the state.
Prince Akiagba commended the Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIUMAMA) for embarking on sensitisation programme against the burning of tyres in the city and environs.
Also speaking with The Tide, an environmentalist, Mr Thomas Ikaraba, stressed the need for the state government to ensure that sources of the black soot were identified and culprits punished in accordance with the law.
He described the black sooth incident as very embarrassing, stressing that the incident could stop investors from coming to this state.