Commissioner Nafisat Buge’s new efforts towards a cleaner Kwara

By Mosunmola Ayobami, Ilorin

Recently, the roads across Ilorin were littered with dirts from overflowing Roro waste bins, strategically placed within the metropolis. An initiative of the past administration, the present government has sustained the usage of the bins and has also provided more for effective waste collection.

However, when the Roro Bins are filled to the brim without timely evacuation, they pose environmental and health hazard to communities. The late evacuation of the wastes also attract scavengers, who dump dirts at any nearby uncompleted building, in drainages or open spaces.

However, the appointment of youthful, Ms Nafisat Buge as Commissioner for the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, has brought renewed drive into efforts to maintain a more cleaner Kwara State.

As the new sheriff in town, the young commissioner has read riot act on indiscriminate dumping of refuse. She has engaged market leaders, traditional rulers and law enforcement agencies to partner with the ministry to ensure the wastes are disposed properly.

Under Buge’s watch, the monthly sanitation exercise is being conducted smoothly. It holds every last Saturday of the month between the hours of 7:00 and 9:00 am during which period movements and commercial activities are restricted.

I’m addition, to sustain a clean and healthy environment, the Kwara State Government inaugurated a 300-man Surveillance Taskforce to check indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the Ilorin metropolis.

The Commissioner, Ms Buge, at the official inauguration, emphasized that members of the public must cooperate with the government and its agencies to find a lasting solution to the problem of indiscriminate dumping of refuse to forestall the outbreak of diseases, especially cholera, which ravaged some states recently.

“indiscriminate dumping of refuse is a general phenomenon that requires urgent attention, most especially in Ilorin metropolis. The only solution to eradicate it is to aggressively commence a rethinking of sustainable waste management by the government and sensitize the people on the dangers inherent in dumping refuse indiscriminately” she said.

According to her, it is illegal to dump refuse on road medians, road dividers, roundabouts, gutters, drainage channels, and waterways. She warned that anybody caught conducting trading activities beyond the drainage on the roadside will be penalized.

The Commissioner disclosed that the Ministry will with immediate effect remove the bigger Roro (waste) bins from the road sides or roundabouts and take them to places where they will impede vehicular movements. She added that waste bins have been placed at different collection points for onward evacuation to the final dump site.

Ms Buge said the Ministry has engaged the services of qualified consultants to evacuate refuse from the collection points within 24 hours.

The Commissioner said scavenging is no longer allowed in the metropolis and that all previously registered scavengers are advised to do their business at the government dump site at Sokoto-Aiyekale off the Express way.

Buge also announced that 38 Commercial Waste Consultants have been allocated to different communities to collect refuse with the payment of a monthly token, adding that refuse could also be disposed in the government mobile collection vans/vehicles whenever such comes to the communities.

She noted that the Ministry will provide medium sized waste collection bins for shop owners and households for proper disposal of refuse.

The Commissioner disclosed that the Ministry would not relent in community engagement and media sensitization to correct unacceptable practices and disseminate regular information on the new strategies.

Buge revealed that the surveillance taskforce will embark on 24-hours surveillance duty, warning that convicted offenders will be made to face the full wrath of the relevant environmental laws.

Meanwhile, the inaugurated surveillance taskforce has hit the ground running as over 75 environmental law violators were arrested and sentenced to a minimum of three months jail term or option of N50,000

With the taskforce in place, the activities of the wandering scavengers have drastically reduced.

The 38 commercial waste collection consultants are not new in the state. It is hoped that with the consultants performing their duties diligently and the residents doing their part, the efforts towards a cleaner and greener Kwara devoid of the apprehension over outbreak of diseases would be achieved.