Cleanliness: Onitsha South LG Inaugurates Environmental Committee, Enforcement Marshals ….. Places #50,000 Fine On Defaulters

By Juliana Nwachukwu

The Onitsha South Local Government Area on 23rd June, inaugurated 40 Man Environmental Enforcement Marshals in the Council Hall at the Secretariat to checkmate the incidents of flight tipping of waste and indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the area.

While inaugurating the environmental marshals on the authority of the Mayor, the Secretary to the Local Government, Paul Onuachalla Esq. disclosed that the environmental committee is made up of the Mayor and the four leaders of the Fegge community, Fegge, Woliwo, Odoakpu and Housing and tasked them to take full charge of local administration and particularly, the environments.

He noted because they are the locals, they know all the nooks and crannies of their communities, they are to bring government to the grassroot level, pointing out that Community itself enforces law, that they should try to change ways of doing things, because what is faced here is flight tipping of waste, adding that in England it is a serious offence.

He said “Here, we have the issue of street traders. Certainly Mr Governor rightly and wisely categorised them as petty traders but there are other issues that associated with them, they cause environmental hazards, a woman roasting corn, would garner all the waste from the corn and once the rain falls, she emptied it in the drainage system.

“It goes up, getting down to the lower side of the Niger, it blocked the drainage channels, the next thing is flooding, they think it is a minor offence, but have committed murder by disposing waste indiscriminately, because once the drainage channel is blocked, it falls back on the community and might kill somebody, and the chances of killing not just one person is there.

Onuachalla while speaking further charged the newly Inaugurated marshals to first and foremost embark on campaign because information is key, he pointed out that they don’t want to get defaulters because the fine is high, adding “If you hear the fine and stop, we clap for you but if you hear the fine and continue, we must fine you”he posited.

He added that, “If we have logistics problems and the vehicle did not come at the stipulated time, the enforcement would be suspended and subsequently embark on intervention, that is collecting waste from where they were dropped by the residents.

The Special Adviser to the Council Mayor on Political Matters, Comrade Dunu Chiadikobi disclosed that, collection of waste in Fegge is
scheduled to be Saturdays, Sundays, Mondays and they run three trips each of these days to ensure that all the waste are collected, adding that they chose these days because they are weekends, that children stay at home to empty their waste, then on Wednesdays, they embark on 2 trips of intervention work, clearing dumped wastes on the street.

He advised the newly inaugurated marshals to do the work without fear or favour, to do it with integrity, sensitize the residents on why they should not Indiscriminately dump refuse which causes health hazards, and they don’t need their money but to do things appropriately.

To ease the pressure of indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the area, he added that the council provided nine receptacles, dropped 5 for Odoakpu residents while the remaining 4 are for Fegge residents, assured Fegge residents that sooner, two receptacles would be mounted at Port Harcourt road by Miss Elems while the remaining two would be at Silas works by Oraukwu Street.

The Leader of Odoakpu Community, Chief Okey Ojiudu stated that the four leaders came together in order to put a lasting solution to indiscriminate dumping of refuse in Onitsha South Local Government and decided to create taskforce which were inaugurated today.

According to him,”Each community provided 10 persons and we have directed them on what to do, we appointed responsible men who would be able to sensitize the general public on the right thing to do, not to prioritize on #50.000 fine.

Woliwo Community Leader, Chief Ifeanyi Onwuegbuchunam in his words appealed to the Council for an authority, necessary backups for them to carry out the duties without impediments