MAKURDI TOWN STILL SITTING ON FILTH.
It's very depressing to note that Makurdi town is still littered with dirt like a filthy dungeon. Just this evening, I drove past the busy High Level Round About located in the heart of town and I saw black refuse sacks that were offloaded and dumbed right by the round about. Judging from the quantity of the waste, I could tell that a vehicle parked and offloaded them there.
It's even more worrisome that the perpetrators of this crime dump waste directly on the road dividers and sometimes right on the roads. But how can we be dumping refuse on the roads? Something must be terribly wrong with us or our system.
We can not continue to pretend as if everything is fine. The cleanliness and serenity of our town is important for our sanity.
The mere fact that this has continued unabated and no one is punished for it goes to show that we are a people who can cope with, and tolerate any kind of filth, be it garbage in our environment or unimaginable failures from our public office holders.
It is not rocket science to keep Makurdi clean. All that needs to be done is to activate the Benue State Environmental laws, punish offenders and get them to conform to what is right. If Benue State Environmental and Sanitation Agency (BENSESA) is overwhelmed with the level of waste, it should license private operators to step in and help.
The GM of BENSESA just need to activate a taskforce that will set up stinker operations and arrest and punish people who are dumping refuse indiscriminately. Once the people become aware of the dangers of such unhealthy practices, they will become more willing to patronize the private refuse collectors licenced and regulated by BENSESA.
Part V, section 12.5 of the Benue State Environmental Sanitation Authority Law 2005, states that:
"No person shall dump any waste, be it domestic, industrial, commercial or discarded vehicle spare parts or tyres along Highways, roads, channels, gutters, gorges, vacant land directly or through private operators except at designated places." Section 22.1. further states that:
"Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with any of the provisions of this Law shall be guilty of any offence and shall on conviction be liable to be punished with fine and or imprisonment as provided in Schedule 1 to this Law."
I dare to say that any person who, as the General Manager of BENSESA fails to implement this laws has failed in his own duty as the GM of BENSESA.
Paddy Naakombo writes from Makurdi.
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