By Asma’u Ahmad
The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has called on the Abuja residents to collaborate with the agency toward making the FCT environment safe and healthy for all.
Head of Information and Outreach Unit, AEPB, Mr. Muktar Ibrahim, made the call on Sunday in an interview with newsmen, on the sideline of World Earth Day celebration in Abuja.
The World Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on every April 22 Worldwide to create awareness toward ensuring safe and healthy environment.
Mr. Ibrahim identified indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the nation’s capital one of the major challenges facing the agency.
He said that it was becoming difficult for the agency to maintain the standards and the purpose of its establishment.
“People dump refuse, electrical/electronic equipment anyhow, farming and spreading of clothes on walkways and even on pedestrian bridges, all these activities are an eyesore before the visitors in our midst,” he said.
According to him, the AEPB in collaboration with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration is implementing technical cooperation of “The Project for Integrated Solid Waste Management System, in cooperation with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The official said the cooperation was to improve waste management system through improving waste collection and transportation to keep the FCT environment friendly to all citizens.
“With this initiative, every resident is expected to be agent of change, who can provide information and guide other neighbours around him or her. And it is imperative that all the residents understand about proper waste management,” he said.
The main goal of the initiative, Ibrahim explained, was to reduce and eliminate the adverse effects of waste on human health and environment and to support economic development and improve the quality of life of the residents.
He, therefore, underscored the need for every resident to own refuse bins for proper disposal and collection of waste to facilitate easy recycling. He disclosed that the agency had begun the recycling process of all sort of waste in the FCT.
“Recycling activities is ongoing and this has created jobs for most of the job seekers who used to roam about Abuja streets and this is one of the aims of this call for cooperation with us,” he said.
