By Spence Friday Idighri,
The lukewarm attitude of Deltans and residents towards the declared monthly environmental sanitation in Delta State has been attributed to government inability to enforce sanitation laws coupled with lack of capacity on the part of the Private Sector Participants(PSPs) to evacuate waste.
But that government is ready ever than before to ensure effective enforcement of sanitation laws and to assist PSPs to enhance their capacity in carrying out their assigned duties.
This was disclosed by the Delta State Commissioner for Environment, Mr.Chris Onogba while interacting with some journalists in Asaba.
The Environment Commissioner who said a cleaner Delta has been and remains the agenda of the present government said the only difference will be that the policy will be deepened this time around to ensure that more stakeholders are involved and people are made to take ownership of their environment to guarantee a sustainable and enforceable environmental policy.
To this end,he said “PSPs who failed in their duty of evacuating waste already paid for by residents will be prosecuted. Same measure will also apply to residents who default in their payments”
Onogba who appealed to Deltans to cultivate the right attitude and imbibe an acceptable culture towards the environment said “The cleaner the environment the lesser the money we spend to take care of our health”
He equally encouraged Deltans to at least plant five trees in a lifetime,noting that the reward of such venture can hardly be quantified.
On the readiness of government towards the anticipated flood which is now becoming an annual occurrence,he ruled out the building of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps when he said ” Government will not build Camps for IDPs for the singular reason being that the actual victims are usually not the beneficiaries of such programme”