Fides Media Living the Faith
By Jude Atupulazi
For those who have been worried about the mountains of unevacuated refuse littering Awka capital city and environs, the words of the new Managing Director of Anambra State Waste Management Agency, Mr Amaechi Akora, will come as good news as the new helmsman has promised to rid the capital city and surrounding areas of dirt by the end of August, writes Jude Atupulazi.
For some time now, refuse heaps had literally taken over the landscape of the major cities of Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi, prompting residents of those cities to wonder what was wrong with the agency concerned with waste management.
But in an exclusive interview with Fides in his office in Awka, the new boss of the agency said with the new strategies mapped out by the agency, the heaps of refuse would disappear from the capital city and environs by the end of this month.
He said that part of those strategies included focusing on repairing broken down equipment, enlightenment of the populace on the right attitude, provision of compactors for the dumping of refuse in the Eke Awka axis, as well as clearing the waste dumped on the median from Eke Awka Market axis to Amawbia, promising that the situation along that axis would be resolved within a week. ‘With the fair weather we are beginning to experience now, between now and the end of August, we will return Awka to a thoroughly clean capital territory,’ he promised.
Mr Akora however bemoaned the attitude of the people, describing them as still steeped in the old ways of disposing refuse, rather than embracing the modern ways.
According to him, the efforts of waste managers would come to nought without the cooperation of members of the public. He noted that waste management was a large and collective task that involved everyone.
