By Jude Atupulazi
As a follow up to ”Operation Dobe Anambra Ocha” recently launched last July by the Anambra State Ministry of Environment to rid the state of filth, the Anambra State Waste Management Agency, ASWAMA, August 24, commenced its own campaign to clear the Ifite Axis of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, of waste, in partnership with the Students Union Government (SUG) of Unizik and a Non-Governmental Organization, African Clean Up Initiative, reports Jude Atupulazi.
The back-up operation, tagged, ”Go Clean Ifite Unizik”, which recorded a huge success, had students of Unizik mobilizing themselves to take part in the clean-up.
Speaking to Fides after the exercise, the Managing Director of ASWAMA, Mr Amaechi Akorah, said the choice of the Ifite Awka Axis was necessitated by the massive amount of domestic and industrial waste in the area occasioned by the unplanned nature of houses there.
Akorah also said the exercise underlined the huge importance the Willie Obiano-led Government attached to environmental cleanliness, which, he said, was one of the pillars of that Administration.
Reviewing the performance of ASWAMA over the past one year, the ASWAMA boss said it had been a progressive growth, recalling the sensitization campaign on the Zik Avenue Corridor; bringing in of compactors and introduction of gate-to-gate pick-up by the agency in August last year.
Noting that the agency had defied all odds to keep the Awka Capital reasonably clean, he disclosed that any time now, the agency would take delivery of six new trucks from Germany to boost its operations. He recalled that sometime in the past, the agency’s work had been hampered by lack of operational vehicles and dump site until an alternate dump site was procured.
He said that with the arrival of the new trucks and the ones they already had, a big difference was certain to be made, especially given plans by the agency to partner with other agencies in the disposal of waste.
He said that as part of that partnership, the agency had reached an agreement with Awka South Local Government Area whose personnel were already well versed in the business.
The ASWAMA MD however regretted what he termed the wrong attitude of the populace, whom, he said, only cared for the waste in their homes. Noting that attitudinal problem constituted the agency’s greatest challenge, he announced that mobile courts would soon be set up to prosecute offenders, just as he enjoined the populace to cooperate with the agency to achieve the desired results.
