Nigeria Content Online

The senate
committee chairman on environment, Grace Bent, has called for the
establishment of standard landfills and waste management sites in Abuja.

She made the call
on Thursday when she took an oversight tour of the various dump sites
scattered along the suburbs bothering Abuja city and Nasarawa state.

The senator decried
the poor management of the dump sites which were mostly located within
settlements – some on street roads – with the permission of the Abuja
Environmental Protection Board (AEPD).

“I think the level
which we are in this country now we need a proper landfill,” Mrs Bent
said. “I think we have a serious problem here, without them.” Most of
the dump sites located in open areas relied heavily on scavengers to
dispose the waste and had no fencing. They neither had incinerators nor
any form of solid waste treatment cells.

Places visited
during the tour included Karu, Nyanya and Jikoyi. “I am worried the
city is dangerously polluted and you can understand the dilemma of
people living in these areas. They are human beings but they are
totally neglected. This is a national embarrassment,” she said.

Trading blames

Officials of the
board however blamed the absence of a proper waste management plant and
standard landfill for the city on their inability to develop an
environmental impact assessment plan for them. The officials further
complained that it was too difficult to get approvals from the Federal
Ministry of Environment.

Oludayo Dada, the
director of pollution control in the environment ministry, however,
contradicted their claims, saying the processes in the ministry was
easy.

Mr. Dada explained
that the ministry had collaborated with other state governments to
establish such landfills and the process was available.

“We have done similar things with in Aba (with Abia State), Enugu, and Onitsha.” Mr. Dada said.

Notwithstanding
that, Tony Epediyi, a deputy director of AEPD, insisted that the “it
takes time to establish a landfill.” The board officials however
admitted approving the establishment of a dump site within settlements
in the suburbs but maintained that Mr. Dada, the representative of the
environment ministry, was making a political statement when he said the
process of establishing a landfill was easy.

Too much grammar

“You people are
just blowing too much grammar on this issue,” the senator said. “What
we are talking about is reality. If the federal capital territory is
like this, what will become of other states?” She said she was
dissatisfied with the performance of the city’s waste managers and
ordered that all dump sites located within municipalities in the
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) be relocated to outside town.

The senator,
thereafter, summoned the Minister of FCT and every other administrator
involved in waste management in the city for a meeting to discuss the
establishment of a landfill and proper waste management method for the
city.