The General Manager, Ondo State Waste Management Authority (ODSWMA), Rev Mrs Ayo Adeyemo, has frowned at the indiscriminate way and manner in which
some residents of the state capital are disposing their waste, saying such unhygienic practices can cause avoidable epidemic.
According to her, the poeple are dumping their waste indiscriminately and in flagrant disobedience to sanitation laws.
The GM disclosed this on Saturday shortly after monitoring the July edition of the monthly environmental sanitation excise in some part of Akure, the Ondo State capital.
She also revealed that some people were apprehended during the exercise over indiscriminate dumping of waste in unauthorized places.
“Instead of them to keep their waste in bins and put it at the frontage of their houses, they will just take the bins to somewhere and dump it barely. This is rainy season and we have to be very careful so as not to cause problem for ourselves. Some are even dumping their refuse in the drainages; they use drainages as alternative to waste collection. This is wrong.
“All of us must key into this sanitation excise because it is for our own good. We must take the issue of our health and personal hygiene very important”, the GM emphasised.
Rev Adeyemo explained that the state Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu is doing a lot to attract investors to invest in the state, hence the people should continue to join hands with his government to make the state clean, hygienic and friendly to further encourage visitors.
She also encouraged relevant evacuators to scale up their evacuation activities across the state capital to ensure all-round cleanliness.
The GM appealed to residents to desist from dumping of waste in undesignated places, warning that violators would be appropriately dealt with in accordance with the laws.
She said ODSWMA would continue to step up its enforcement activities, adding that anybody caught would be punished to serve as deterrent to others.
According to her, the offenders usually move their refuse to unauthorized places including the road median and dump it there late in the night and very early in the morning to avoid being apprehended.
Rev. Adeyemo charged the affected residents to imbibe the culture of keeping their waste in waste bins for easy evacuation, and a healthy living.
She observed that if everybody decides to do things right the society will be better for it.
“Waste is not flowers or any other things we can use to decorate our environment. So, we must stop dumping it all around our environment. We should make our environment clean and friendly. Our environment is our next of kin and we must treat it well”, she said.
