BY UCHE ANITA CHUKWUMA
Permanent secretary of the Delta state ministry of Environment, Dr. Mrs. Minnie Oseji, weekend monitored the sanitation exercise in Asaba, the Delta state capital.
Dr. Oseji, in company of her team, toured parts of Asaba where, though there was no restriction of movement, many residents complied with cleaning their environments.
In a short interview after visiting selected parts of the Delta state capital, the permanent secretary expressed satisfaction with residents’ compliance to keeping their environment clean and maintaining needed environmental hygiene.
She said it is expected that the people keep their environment clean daily, however, it is good they also comply with government directive on monthly basis to observe the sanitation exercise.
“Today, we have gone round a lot of places in Asaba. We have seen that on the whole our finding is average. A lot of places are being kept clean. Drainages are also cleared. Their surroundings are clean, overgrown weeds have been taken care of. We also met some people working.
“I will say that on the overall we are satisfied. However, we still noticed that there are still some drainages cleared and dumped. It is the responsibility of the person clearing the drains to arrange for refuse bags, tie them and then the PSP they registered with will evacuate them as at when due.
“The practice of clearing drains, leaving them and allowing rains to push them back to the drainage is not helping the system. It is the blocked drains that cause flooding. We are doing everything to control flooding.”
As the team moved around the city, a dead body was found opposite Matrix filling station and the monitoring team notified the local government council for quick evacuation.
Dr. Oseji advised Deltans to keep their environment clean to prevent the spread of diseases, as it is the responsibility of all residents to clean 20 metres radius of their premises.
