Dear Sir, Refuse Management Confusion!

By By Uche Osunkwo

The authorities need to understand that there is what I can describe as ‘refuse management confusion’ now consequent upon which people find it difficult to know, understand and follow policies and directives as expected.

As it is currently, there is no clearly defined agenda for it besides the staccato and uncoordinated pronouncements emanating from diverse sources; most of them verbally emphasizing on the need of cleanliness and the need for people to be serious about it, without outlining practical ways of ensuring that.

Most often, what should be guiding directives, do not offer much but betray the authorities’ conviction that people deliberately disobey refuse management rules, hence the poor sanitary condition we experience, which, generally, is not the fact.

Factually, though one can’t rule out cases of mischief to that regard, but that is being over generalized, as people do not prefer living with filth and dirt, though circumstances of helplessness often push them into unbecoming self-help actions like illegal dumping of refuse.

The contention here is that the public is not in possession of a defined package of the government’s refuse management agenda, well domesticated for grassroots’ practical use and application.

My observation is that the dismantled strategy of designating public refuse deposition points offered more hope than the current house to house collection method.

By Uche Osunkwo, Awka Anambra State.