AEPB urges FCT residents to engage in proper waste mgt

The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has advised Federal Capital Territory (FCT) residents to use waste bins and avoid throwing waste in drainage channels.

Head of Department of Solid Waste Management, AEPB, Mr. Omogiade Omoruyi, gave the advice in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.

Omoruyi said that the adoption of proper waste management techniques would ensure a clean environment that would safeguard the people’s well-being, particularly during the rainy season.

He noted that rainy season could be a challenging period for city management and public health officials because of the speedy putrefaction of organic waste and possibilities of flooding.

He advised the residents to procure and use waste bins with fitted covers to protect the stored garbage from the rains, while reducing its pace of putrefaction and emission of offensive odour.

Omoruyi said that as the rains had now started, the residents ought to cooperate with AEPB in keeping their surroundings clean.

“The major issue here is that some residents don’t have waste bins that have covers to shield their outstanding garbage from the weather element of rain.

“Some residents don’t have waste bins and they don’t even bother to know the importance of having waste bins at homes.

“Whenever it rains, there is the tendency for the waste to absorb the rainwater, this makes the waste heavier and it decomposes faster and smells more; that’s why residents should have waste bins and ensure that the bins are always covered.

“Residents should make it as a point of duty to ensure that their waste bins are properly covered and protected.

“They should also desist from throwing trash from vehicles. When we throw out trash from our cars, it affects the environment and when rains fall, the water pushes all the bottles, pure water sachets into the drains.

“We all know that the blockage of drainage channels by debris is the commonest cause of urban flooding,’’ he said.

Omoruyi advised the residents to always separate organic waste from other kinds of waste, saying that the adoption of such waste sorting techniques would enable waste collection contractors to remove the waste to appropriate dumpsites.

He also said that the board was working toward the completion of waste transfer stations in the FCT.

He said that a waste transfer station was a building or a processing site where waste was deposited for recycling purposes.