Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
More than 50 defaulters have been convicted by the Aba South Environmental Sanitation court for dumping refuse at unauthorized locations. Many of them received sentences ranging from serving terms in the Aba medium correctional centre, doing manual labour as well as payment of stipulated fines.
According to the Chairman of Aba South Waste Management Team, Chief Otah Ukariwo, activities of many residents in refuse disposal management had become unacceptable as people wantonly offload bags of wastes into running drainages during rainfall, which in turn are washed into open streets where they block roads and become difficult to evacuate by his team.
He told our correspondent that with the recent inauguration of mobile courts to try sanitation offenders, many residents of the commercial city may likely go to jail as the people do not obey simple directives of the government to help keep the city clean.
On the issue of bad roads, Ukariwo said he was happy that the State Government had released its own counterpart fund for the reconstruction of Ngwa Road, stressing that when completed; his team would work towards decongesting the traders that block the motorway as well as throw rubbish into the drains.
He appealed to the state government to approve the release of more vehicles to work on refuse disposal in Aba in a bid to maintain the clean environmental standards the state sanitation agency (ASEPA) has set up in the town.