Abia Assembly Environment Committee Seeks Revival Of Mobile Sanitation Court

Abia State Assembly Committee on Environment and Urban Renewal has called for the invigoration of the state’s mobile sanitation court in line with the administration’s declaration of state of emergency on sanitation.

Chairman of the committee, Kalu Mba Nwoke, made the call when the members visited the state Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Umuahia as part of its oversight function.

He said this would curb the attitude of some residents who refuse to participate in the monthly environmental sanitation exercise as if they were immune to the consequences of dirty environments.

“It is always appalling to observe that during the exercise some people would engage in their business activities while some youths would be playing football on the streets,” he said.

Nwoke added that for the declaration to succeed, the agency must not only ensure that every part of the state is cleared of refuse, but that efforts are also sustained.

He extolled the agency for the successes it has achieved within the past five months, assuring the management of the support of the committee for it to achieve the purpose of the declaration.

Two members of the committee, Uchenna Okoro and Lewis Obianyi, said a clean environment would go a long way to improve the socioeconomic well-being of the state.

The legislators urged the agency to strengthen its monitoring committee on refuse disposal to ensure maximum compliance with the state’s environmental law.

Responding, the general manager of the agency, Ogbonnaya Okereke, said since his assumption of office, the agency had left no stone unturned to achieve its mandate.

“Within the first five weeks of operation, we cleared over 6,000 trucks of solid waste from the streets of Aba,” he said, attributing the achievements to the support of the administration and the people.

Okereke, who said the agency was committed to cleaning up the entire state, announced that the agency had awarded contract to six private companies for waste management in line with global best practices.