Rainy season: Anambra Govt. charges residents to maintain healthy environment

Mr Uchenna Okafor, the Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Wealth Creation in Anambra, has charged residents to ensure a clean and healthy environment during the rains.
Okafor gave the charge in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka on Tuesday, adding that environmental officers should be alive to their responsibility.

According to him, since hygiene and health of the citizens are very essential, there is need for a clean environment.
Okafor underscored the need for healthy living, especially during raining season, which comes with lots of health challenges and discomfort, if not planned for.

He said the state government had initiated proactive measures to ensure the desilting of drains and opening up of water channels in all the markets in the state.
The commissioner said that gutters, roads, streets and communities, where markets are situated across the state, would be drained to ensure free flow of flood water.

He said that government frowned at the act of erecting structures on sanitary lanes and converting water channels to shops, which he described as illegal.
He said that perpetrators of such acts would no longer be tolerated this rainy season and advised those trading in such structures to vacate them.

Okafor said that government’s ban on street trading was still effective.
He, therefore, appealed to traders to comply with government’s directives, saying that appropriate penalty awaited defaulters.
He said that government would apply the full weight of the law on violators of the order on waste management in the state.

In a related development, the Chairman, Awka Capital Territory Development Authority, Mr Amaechi Okwuosa, has urged the people to develop positive attitude towards the environment and avoid all forms of abuse.
Okwuosa said that government evolved a policy to ensure clean and sustainable environment to discourage prospective builders from building on water channels.

He said the policy was part of the efforts to ensure a safe environment, adding that violators of the policy would have their structures removed and also face other sanctions.
He urged prospective builders to follow government’s guidelines, saying the efforts were geared toward creating a healthy and safe environment for all and sundry.

Okwuosa described the dumping of refuse in drains as “a wrong way of living”.
He, therefore, called for a change of attitude on how people live and manage public facilities.
He advised the people to use recycle bins placed at strategic places to avoid littering of their environment and blocking the drains. (NAN)