Follow Us on Google
Sola Ojo, Kaduna
As the world commemorates this year’s Cleanup Day, Centre for Water and Environment Development (CWED) and traders in Mando, Igabi local government, Kaduna, Kaduna State, on Saturday called on the government to place a ban on indiscriminate usage of plastics and polythene as a critical step to save the environment.
World Cleanup Day is an annual global social action programme aimed at combating the global solid waste problem, including the problem of marine debris, coordinated by the Estonian organization Let’s Do It! World.
To these groups, people will naturally come up with other perishable materials to contain their disposables instead of using plastics the pose serious threat to Earth and its occupants especially, in the face of climate realities.
Environmentalists had postulated that indiscriminate disposal of plastic was not only dangerous to oceans, it also causes flood and takes hundreds of years to decay either on the water surface or as debris underground.
Programme Manager, CWED, Ms Doris Zakama said, her organisation decided to commemorate this year’s Cleanup Day at the Mando market in order to engage the market leaders as a strategy to check indiscriminate dumping of refuse especially, plastics.
“The thinking is, if the leaders are aware on the need to separate their plastics from other waste products which they can use as manure, then, getting the marketer here to follow suit with not be difficult.”
“As Centre for Water and Environment Development, we have interacted with these traders on plastic use and disposal. Even when you talk about reusing plastic, that will be for just a few times.
“We want the government to ban the use of plastics. If that is done, people will improvise for what to use. We have a lot of perishable containers one can use.
“There are containers like palm baskets and even disused clothes. If the government ban the use of plastics including polythene, people will come up with alternative means of shopping.
“Today, September 19, is the World Cleanup Day and this year’s commemoration was coming amidst COVID-19 and it’s guideline.
“This time around, we decided to come and sensitise the officials of the market association on how to use some of those waste as manure and pick up plastics that litre the ground and they have promised us to make this a routine thing”, she said.
Chairman, Committee Mando Market Association, Adamu Uba Umar, appreciated the sensitisation exercise and also call the ed on ban of plastics in Nigeria.
He said, “we are happy with their presence here at least, many of us who have heard this on the radio before are now seeing how it is done.
“The area that suits us is when we were told to separate plastics from other wastes which we can convert to manure that is, organic fertiliser and use in our farms or gardens.
“Before now, we just throw dirt anyhow or ask these wheelbarrow boys to help us dispose dirt which sometimes ends up in unwanted spots like road and drainage.
“Now, we will be careful in the ways and manners we will handle our wastes in this market”, he promised.
