Rivers arrests 97 sanitation defaulters

No fewer than 97 persons, who flouted sanitation laws in Rivers State, were on Saturday arrested by the police and special sanitation enforcement agents. The State Waste Management Agency had announced that residents in the state should clean up their residences and environs during the June 26, 2015 clean-up exercise. Those arrested were said to have disregarded the announcement. The defaulters were arrested in some areas in Port Harcourt, the state capital and its environs while going for their various businesses during the restricted period. Speaking with newsmen during the exercise, the Sole Administrator of the State Management Agency, Chief Felix Obuah, told newsmen that those arrested for flouting sanitations laws of the state would be taken to court. If convicted, they would be made to pay fines. Obuah, who also inspected about 30 tricycles purchased by the waste management agency for waste disposal and monitoring, pointed out that the essence of arresting sanitation defaulters was not to punish them, but to make them know that the state government was taking the issue of sanitation seriously. He said, “As I speak to you today, the Environmental Court is already sitting. So, for those defaulters, they will not be set free. Whoever that does not comply, will be tried. And, there is no two ways about it. “We need to educate our people; we need to create more enlightenment. We are not after arresting and detaining and prosecuting our people. We are interested in creating the awareness so that people will know what to do at the right time. “We have discouraged the idea of dumping refuse at the centre of the road. The media should also help us to educate the people that it is not good to drop waste materials at the middle of the road. It is your job; it is my job because health is for everybody.” On the provision of tricycles for waste disposal, the RIWAMA sole administrator, said, “In the first one week in my office, we acquired 20 new tricycles. You can see them branded in Waste Management colour. “From where we started and where we are today, you can see that there is a tremendous change in the aspect of waste management in Rivers State. If you listen to our jingles and advertisement, we have already said it is not good to dump refuse anyhow. “We are trying to encourage and re-orientate our people on the need of bagging their waste materials. Within a short time, our people will realize the need to bag their wastes,” Obuah added.