MORE FACTS EMERGE AS ENUGU STATE GOVERNMENT RESPOND TO SWAGE SPILLAGE IN OGBETE MAIN MARKET
More facts have unfolded on how to tackle the problem of waste flowing from Nigeria prisons Enugu into Ogbete market.
The Commissioner, Enugu State capital Territory Development Authority ECDTA, Mr Chidi Aroh who said it was being tackled from two points, noted that a high capacity septic tank by the state government would soon be completed at the prisons quarters.
Mr. Aro said collaboration between the State and the Prisons headquarters was needed to bring a permanent solution to the problem.
According to him, the problem is not just from the prisons yard but also from prisons quarters due to their dilapidated infrastructure.
“Most of the facilities there are collapsed and they don’t want to renovate them. They use pipes to channel all water of their bathing and swage and the go direct. So you can see that that’s why after we have changed all those pipes we now started to build a septic tank and soak away pit there. That soil retains a lot of water. As we build it collapses, we now have to evacuate our final expenditures on the building and wait till December.”
Mr. Aroh maintained that his office foresaw the problem and served a notice on the prison’s management in May last year.
He explained that the Governor had visited the site and set up a seven man committee to ensure that remedial measures were taken to check the flow of waste from the septic tank.
“The final solution is what we are going to take up now because it appears that at the level at which we are handling it, it’s not well being properly addressed. Am going to seek the permission of His Excellency for the authority to write the Controller General of Prisons. The bills which they are bringing for permanent solution is above 60 something million in this period of recession?”
During inspection of the sites, where works were on-going, it was discovered that pipes had been laid while a septic tank and a soak away pit were almost completed in the prisons quarters.
At the affected areas of the market, the traders had made a channel for the waste, which they used planks to cover.
Some of them stated their view: “The thing is disturbing us, even the traders, if they come back nearby the shop, they will e running away.”
“The will come and open this thing, that’s why thing (waste) is going like this.”
It will be recalled that the flow of the waste into the market had continued since the middle of last year, defying all the previous measures put in place to check it.
by
CHINELO OZOALOR