….Puts Task Force In Place
By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
Only government-registered organisations will henceforth dispose refuse in Kwara State, while truck pushing scavengers roaming the street and corners of Ilorin metropolis are now banned from operating.
The scavengers, who had earlier been licensed by the government to function had lost the privilege.
A section of the state capital residents had of late been linking the scavengers to house breaking and other sordid activities like stealing electric transformer parts, external parts of motor cars and motorbikes parked by innocent citizens in their respective premises.
They are now limited to operate only at the government established dump sites, located at Sokoto-Aiyekale by Ilorin-Kaduna expressway.
Kwara State Commissioner for Environment, Hajia Nafisat Musa Buge, made this known while inaugurating a 300-man Surveillance Task Force to check indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the state capital.
The event marked the state’s resolve to arrest indiscriminate dumping of refuse, illegal street hawking and building of permanent and make-shift shops on set-backs on the major roads in Ilorin.
Speaking at the event, the commissioner declared, “Indiscriminate dumping of refuse is a general phenomenon that requires urgent attention, most especially in the 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 that citizens at this time should cooperate with government and its agencies to find a lasting solution to the problem of the unhealthy habit and defiance in order to forestall outbreak of diseases, especially the ravaging cholera, that is already affecting some states in the country.
She specifically said part if the measures include outlawing the dumping of refuse on road medians, roundabouts, drainage channels and waterways.
Also, residents would be forbidded from displaying wares or goods beyond the gutter on the roadsides for trading activities.
Meanwhile, the commissioner said with immediate effect, bigger roll-roll (waste) bins would be removed from roadside and roundabouts and taken to secured places where vehicular movements would not be impeded.
Also, waste bins were already placed at different collection points for evacuation to the final dump sites, while well-organised consultants have been put in place to evacuate refuse from the collection points within 24 hours, she added.
The commissioner added that the ministry had engaged 38 commercial waste consultants and allocated them to different communities to collect refuse with the payment of a monthly token, while refuse must be dumped inside government mobile collection vans each time they come to various communities.
