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From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Indiscriminate dumping of solid waste at designated spots like Sabon Tasha bridge, Kaduna Polytechnic, Sabo in Chikun Local Government area of Kaduna State among other locations has remained a big issue for stakeholders in the climate change and environmental space in the State.
The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) Annual Flood Outlook (AFO) revealed that States that failed to heed its 2022/2023 hydrological year predictions and warnings were worst affected by the flooding and the flood disasters that claimed over 600 lives across the Country within that period.
This was why NIHSA strongly appealed to the public, relevant government agencies, research institutions, and other stakeholders in the water and non-water sectors, to heed the warnings during the 2023/2024 hydrological year.
However, floods don’t just occur. In most cases, they are caused by human factors including indiscriminate dumping of refuse and slow pace of evacuation which may eventually lead to the blockade of drainage and waterways, poor planning, and failure of the government to adhere to environmental risk assessments before embarking on capital projects.
When a group of developmental journalists visited the solid waste collection point on Monday, August 7, the waste is already spreading into half of the Sabo Bridge.
Already, the August heavy rains are here which means all hands must be on deck to avert the perennial destructive flood which the State has had its share in the past.
The finding revealed that the locals in these areas including the wheelbarrow pushers who are known in local parlance as ‘Babanbola’ and individuals have not been using the waste collector provided by the State Government.
A resident of Sabo who is simply identified as Mr. Bawa led the team into what is partly responsible for the hips of refuse with offensive odor oozing out from them.
“People always find it difficult to climb the place where the container is placed especially those that are using the wheelbarrow. They simply pour the dirt on the road and move away quickly”, he said.
A scavenger sighted at the spot, Marcus alleged that a team from Kaduna City Territorial Authority (KCTA) had chased them away from the place.
According to him, “we used to work on the refuse spot until government people came to pursue us. If not for what we are doing, refuse would have taken over the entire road.
“We search for recyclable materials like cartons, wood, and plastics. But whenever we are done, we will use shovels to clear the waste and put it in one place for easy evacuation.
“At the time, they were paying the two of us N1,500 every Saturday. But at a point, they stopped paying us and also stopped doing the work”, he said.
The team then moved to the Kaduna State Environmental Protection Authority (KEPA) but was directed to the KCTA.
At KCTA, the Director in charge of solid waste was not on seat but a credible source who spoke in confidence asked the team to officially write a request letter to the agency before a detailed interview could be granted.
Meanwhile, the source denied the allegation of chasing away the scavengers and quickly added that those that have grouped themselves into cooperatives have been regularised by a concerned agency for easy monitoring and tracking.
The source also hinted that locals are possibly unaware of how much the State is spending to evacuate solid waste, hence the continuous indiscriminate dumping of waste.
According to the source, the State government through KCTA is considering implementing pay for trash policy to make people accountable.
“When government does something for people and the people are not asked to pay for such, they tend not to know the monetary value of such services.
“So, we want to ask residents to begin to pay for this service. We want to start with residents like banks, factories, and other businesses and later extend to streets and communities. When people pay for service no matter how little, they will value such services.
“Apart from that, we have just developed a jingle to be played in radio stations to sensitize Kaduna residents on proper waste management”, the source explained.
In the interim, waste must be well disposed and evacuated while all blockages are cleared to ensure the free flow of water in waterways, drainages and river channels to avert flood disasters especially as August rains are here.
