Fides Media Living the Faith
By Mmaduabuchi Onwumelu
Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has set out plans to make Anambra State one of the cleanest states in Nigeria by initiating a Bottom-top Structure of Sustainable waste Management in the state from Wards to communities up to local government level. The event took place on 1st of April.
This Community Participation Approach by the state government was made known by the Deputy Governor, Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, at the Anambra State Government House, Awka, on Monday, March 27, during a meeting with the local government transition chairmen and presidents general of all the communities in the state.
The deputy governor, who headed the committee on sustainable waste management, decried what he termed the vanishing culture of cleanliness which Ndi Igbo were known for, regretting that population growth, urbanization and proliferation of markets were some of the factors to blame, assuring that the bottom-up structure being put in place by the governor would address the waste management challenges confronting the state.
Dr Ibezim charged the TC chairmen and the presidents general to take charge of the structures in their care, stating that waste collection would henceforth involve all stakeholders from ward to community, local government, up to the state level, and would be a serious business.
‘We are instituting measures to reward the cleanest community and local government area to encourage others,’ he said.
Ibezim announced that the governor would flag-off a Sustainable Waste Management Programme on Saturday, April 1, 2023, confirming that the programme which would commence with desilting of drainage, would be simultaneously carried out across the 21 local government areas and the 179 communities in Anambra State.
For their parts, the Commissioners for Local Government Tonycollins Nwabunwanne, and his Environment counterpart, Dr Felix Odimegwu, explained that government policies must get to the grassroots to be effective, charging the PGs to take ownership of the programme to realise the governor’s dream of a clean, green and sustainable Anambra State.
Responding, the National President of Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU), Barr. Titus Akpudo, thanked the state government for involving them in the programme aimed at keeping the state clean. He disclosed that the plans would be properly enforced with the involvement of youth leaders of various communities.
Other top government functionaries present were the Commissioner for Information, Sir Paul Nwosu; MD/CEO of ASWAMA, Mike Ifeanyi Ozoemena, and TC chairmen of the 21 LGAs, PGs, among others.