The Rivers State
Environmental Sanitation Authority has blamed the indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the Oyigbo Local Government Area on the attitude of the people.
The Public Relations Officer of the Authority, Mr Olalekan Ige, who said this in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, said that all efforts by the Authority towards ensuring high standard of sanitation in the area has met a brick wall because of the poor attitude of the people towards sanitation.
Mr. Ige said that because of this the Authority is now seeking the support of non governmental organizations, churches and others to sensitise the people on the importance of cleanliness.
He also said that the Authority is seeking the support of the Oyigbo Local Government Council to educate their people on the situation.
According to him, apart from sensitisation campaign, the council needs to put in place, legislations in the form of byelaws to check the menace, stressing that the council must cooperate with the Authority to keep Oyigbo and its environs clean.
Meanwhile, Mr Ige has charged residents of Port Harcourt and environs to cultivate the habit of keeping their environment clean at all time.
He argued that it is wrong for people to want for government to tell them what to do as regards environmental cleanliness, stressing that it is part of the civics responsibility of everyone to clean his environment.
The Sanitation Authority’s Public Relations Officer said that the organisation will continue to sensitise the people in the importance of cleanliness.
L-R: Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Senior Adviser on Environment, Mr Peter-Claver Nwaiwu, Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria, Prof. Bartho Okolo and representative of Managing Director, SPDC, Mr Nedo Osayande, at the inauguration of Centre for Environmental Management at the Enugu Campus of the institution recently.