The once-cleanest State in Nigeria, Akwa Ibom, now appears to be overrun with trash dumps in both its urban core and surrounding areas, including major marketplaces.
Along the Ndiya roadway that connects to Udo Umana, where the well-known Akpan Andem market is located, mountains of trash block both vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
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Abak Road, Ikpa Road near the University of Uyo, Atiku Abubakar Avenue, Ikot Ekpene Road, Itu-Calabar Road, IBB Way, Nwaniba Road, and Obio Imoh Street are among the other roads that are not exempt.
Residential areas, such the Udobio Street entry to Effiong Ukpong Street, have also been taken over by garbage piles.
A situation where vendors, especially those selling fruits and other consumables, remain too close to garbage dumps despite the stink emanating from the dump sites is more concerning.
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This endangers the health of not just these weak people, who are mainly women, but also the buyers of these tainted foods and fruits.
According to estimates, Akwa Ibom produces more than 15,000 tonnes of municipal and home waste every day. Based on observations, the rubbish piles are mostly found in the marketplaces.
When pointing to the trash dump, a water leaf vendor named Madam Imoh stated, “We pay sanitation charge in Itam Market even here we are selling, but look at the way the place is. Even though they occasionally come to remove the waste, this site is always filthy.
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Barr Clifford Thomas, the executive director of the Foundation for Civic Education, Human Rights, and Development Advancement (FOCEHRADA), however, condemned the government’s trash management system and criticized it in an interview.
“What we do is clean, pack trash from some important locations in Akwa Ibom State, film those important locations, and then write a report for the organization that decides who gets the award. At the end of the day, we are called the cleanest state in Nigeria,” he said. That may not be possible to maintain.
We may be the cleanest state in Nigeria based on their variables, but whatever the variables were that made us the cleanest state in Nigeria call for further action from us.
Thomas also noted that the Uyo Village Road dumpsite, a significant supply of water for 24 local government areas in the state, had become contaminated with garbage, and he added that this had led to an increase in the number of cases of typhoid fever and malaria in the region.
He claimed, “The Akwa Ibom State landfill where we dump rubbish is supposed to be a UNESCO site. Because it leads directly to the water level where the water table is, that location has a spring. It was destroyed despite being a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“Waste from that location, including human tissue, is transported to the Ikpa trough. Several local government areas receive water from the Ikpa trough. We have the same water source in more than 24 local government areas like the one you can see on Uyo Village Road. So there is still a higher incidence of typhoid when you dig a borehole and drink the water.
Prince Akpan Ikim, the chairman of the Akwa Ibom State Environmental Protection and rubbish Management Agency (AKSEPWMA), acknowledged the increased amount of rubbish produced in Uyo at a media discussion and assured the audience that his organization was making every effort to address the problem.
He continued by saying that his employees were searching for areas with a lot of garbage.
Ikim blamed the predicament to the state’s rising population as well as the expensive expense of employing trucks because of the high price of diesel.
He declared, “We will make every effort to be at the top of our game.
The Chairman also complained that some local government councils were underpaying the agency by enacting their own bylaws and imposing cleanliness fees in markets.
He asked municipal governments to maintain the cleanliness of the markets by enacting sanitation fees, claiming that they had failed to do so.
According to him, “Some municipal governments woke up and announced they had passed an environmental by-law. These individuals have also developed a system for obtaining sanitation fees from neighborhood marketplaces. In a market where you are charging customers, I won’t haul your trash away for you.
“If you are paying market women a certain amount of money for sanitation fees, you should utilize that money to remove rubbish.
Therefore, the local governments that have established these regulations and are obtaining fines should kindly use those funds to remove rubbish.
I have been making some interventions nearby, as with the Akpan Andem market problem, but I have made it clear to them that I will no longer be evacuating.
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