In a bid to tackle open defecation and encourage cleanliness in Abuja and environs, the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) has launched a city- wide clean-up initiative tagged; ‘Clean Environment Campaign.’
In a media briefing yesterday in Abuja, the public relations officer, AMAC Environmental Services, Joshua Jekwu Ogbonna, said; “The rate of open defecation going on in Abuja is not practiced even in the villages of many smaller African countries; careless trashing of wastes by passers-by is commonly practiced, even around the presidential villa.”
He noted that these unhygienic practices had made it easier for mosquitoes to breed, and the situation had reduced the value of many houses in Abuja.
Ogbonna said; “The hygienic level of our food items is very low, which has made it possible for typhoid fever to increase in Abuja. Therefore, the office of the senior special adviser to the chairman of AMAC on Environment and Health service Aloy Etim has launched a serious war against dirt in AMAC in line with the vision of the chairman, Hon. Christopher Maikalangu.
He said though the campaign was aimed at fighting against every unhygienic practice in AMAC, the main objective is to eradicate mosquitoes in the area council.
Ogbonna added that a task force would be established to carry out enforcement and mobile courts would be set up to prosecute environmental law offenders. He, therefore, called on AMAC residents and the press to partner the area council in the clean-up campaign.
