Delta State Ministry of Environment declared Saturday, December 21, a special environmental sanitation day to clean up the state for the Christmas and new year celebrations.
Expectedly, officials of the Ministry, the State Waste Management Board and the State Task Force on Environmental Sanitation filed out the monitor the exercise, but were disappointed that residents claimed ignorance of the exercise and instead focused on preparatory activities to Christmas.
The loading bays of transport companies in the state capital Asaba were busy with passengers making frantic efforts to book for seats in Abuja, Lagos, Warri Benin and other parts of the country bound vehicles, even with the fares already hitting the sky.
The popular Ogbeogonogo market and the Abraka market were not spared of beehive of activities as buyers and sellers were on top of their transactions while the clean up exercise lasted.
The Chairman of the Delta State Waste Management Board, Mr. Emmanuel Chinye, supervised the evacuation of refuse from illegal dump sites on the Asaba – Benin expressway, the Ibusa – Ogwashi Uku road and other parts of the state caoital.
Mr. Chinye told newsmen that the Board was determined to rid the major towns and cities in the state of illegal dump sites, explaining that the special sanitation exercise was to ensure that the state was clean for the Christmas and new year celebrations.
He disclosed that dump sites had been acquired and fenced in Ughelli and Sapele, while the abandoned one at Agbarho had been revived to ensure proper disposal of waste.
The Waste Management Board Chairman renewed his call on residents to desist from indiscriminate dumping of waste, insisting that there was no reason for that with the private sector participation arrangement put in place by government.
The Director, Sanitation and Waste Management, Delta State Ministry of Environment, Mr Lucky Adah, also monitored the clean up exercise in some parts of Asaba.
He said the exercise was largely successful even with the defiance of the restriction of movement, pointing out that two mobile courts sat where 21 offenders were arraigned, some fined and others made to do some work at the court premises.
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