In its bid to sustain a clean and healthy environment, Kwara State Government has inaugurated a 300-man surveillance taskforce to check indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the Ilorin metropolis.
RL: Chief Magistrate Ibrahim Dansuki, Senior Special Assistant to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Sanitation, Alhaji Yakub Agodi, Senior Special Assistant to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Environmental Protection, Muazu Muhammad, State Commissioner for Environment, Hajia Nafisat Musa Buge, permanent secretary, Alhaji Ayinla Abubakar, Director personnel Finance ans Supply, Taiwo Okanlawon, Director Environment, Mrs Mary Mustapha and others during the Inauguration of Environmental Taskforce at the ministry headquarter, Ilorin,
The Commissioner for Environment, Hajia Nafisat Musa Buge, disclosed this on Monday in Ilorin, the state capital, during the official inauguration of the environmental taskforce.
She said: “indiscriminate dumping of refuse is a general phenomenon that requires urgent attention, most especially in Ilorin metropolis. The only solution to eradicate it is to aggressively commence a rethinking of sustainable waste management by the government and sensitise the people on the dangers inherent in dumping refuse indiscriminately.”
She stressed the need for members of the public to cooperate with the government and its agencies to find a lasting solution to the problem to forestall the outbreak of diseases, especially cholera, which is already ravaging some states in the country.
According to the Commissioner, some of the strategies to be employed by the Ministry to nip the menace in the bud are making the
dumping of refuse on road medians, road dividers, roundabouts, gutters, drainage channels, and waterways illegal, while anybody caught displaying wares/goods beyond the gutter on the roadside for trading activities would be penalised.
Others are immediate removal of
the bigger roll-roll (waste) bins from the road sides and roundabouts to secure places where vehicular movements would not be impeded, placing of waste
bins at different collection points for onward evacuation to the final dump site, and putting in place well organised consultants to evacuate refuse from the collection points within 24 hours.
Scavenging, she added, is no longer allowed within Ilorin metropolis, adding that all previously registered scavengers are advised to do their businesses only at the government’s dump site at Sokoto-Aiyekale, off the Express Way.
She said: “We have engaged 38 Commercial Waste Consultants and allocated them to different communities to collect refuse with the payment of a monthly token. Otherwise, refuse should be dumped inside the government mobile collection vans/vehicles whenever it comes to your community.
“The Ministry will provide medium sized waste collection bins for shop owners and households for proper disposal of refuse.
“We would not relent in community engagement and media sensitisation to correct unacceptable practices and disseminate regular information on the new strategies.”
Buge, who disclosed that the surveillance taskforce would embark on 24 hours surveillance, warned that culprits would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
While administering oath of allegiance on members of the taskforce, Chief Magistrate Ibrahim Dansuki stressed the need for them to adhere strictly to the environmental laws in order to avoid litigation.