The Satellite Towns De
velopment Agency (STDA) in the FCT has decried the non-payment of sanitation bills by most residents of the satellite towns.
The agency’s Head of Public Relations, Miss Felicia Meeme, made this known in an interview with newsmen during a joint refuse mop-up between the STDA and the Bwari Area Council.
Meeme said that payment of sanitation bills would go a long way in assisting the agency to discharge its duty of maintaining excellent sanitation in the satellite towns.
She said that sanitation of the satellite towns was contracted to some private companies whose charges could only be paid when residents paid their own sanitation bills.
The mop-up saw the evacuation of refuse from collection points in Kubwa, Dutse and Bwari to the dumpsite in Bwari.
The Supervisor of Environment and Sanitation, Bwari Area Council, Mrs Fidelia Ohanashonam, noted that partnership with the agency on sanitation had been very effective in ridding most towns in the area council of huge collection of waste.
She said that the agency’s involvement in waste collection and disposal was an intervention programme designed to allow the area council to stabilise before taking full charge of sanitation of the environment.
“The STDA is partnering with us in the areas of waste collection, erosion control and other environmental sanitation activities.
“This collaboration has been very effective because if you go round towns like Kubwa, Dutse and Bwari, you will see the clearance of waste taking place in major collection points to the dumpsites,’’ she said.
Bwari Area Council’s Head of Environment Department, Mr Ahmed Labaran, said that residents of Bwari Area Council needed continuous sensitisation on environmental sanitation issues.