Residents of Asaba, the Delta State capital, have commended the State Waste Management Board for carrying out regular refuse evacuation in the state capital.
Some of the residents, who spoke to our reporter, noted that illegal dumpsites and littering of the streets had drastically reduced, except for Koka junction where hawkers and artisans constituted nuisance to the environment.
They called for a joint operation by the Board, the State Capital Territory Development Agency, the State Task Force on Environmental Sanitation and the Oshimili South Local Government Council, in addressing the Koka Junction menace, which they noted had become worrisome.
A shop owner at Koka roundabout, Mrs Isioma Njoku, said officials of the State Waste Management Board were always under the flyover to evacuate waste, but that the whole place was messed up again, immediately after each exercise.
She said she had witnessed attempts to stop the unwholesome activities of those involved to no avail, expressing surprise why the situation could not be decisively dealt with once and for all.
Another respondent, Ikechukwu Francis, called on the organization responsible for the beautification of the Koka roundabout to increase the pace of work in order to restrict people from using the spaces under the flyover.
He wondered what the situation would have been like if the State Waste Management Board was not evacuating waste from under the flyover and around the Koka Junction on a daily basis, and called on the relevant authorities, including the security agencies, to restore sanity to the strategic junction.
Meanwhile, officials of the Delta State Waste Management Board, during the week, evacuated the waste illegally dumped before the Airport, on the Asaba – Benin expressway.
The one dumped on the Asaba – Ibusa road, opposite the General Steel Mill, was also not spared in the exercise, which was supervised by Juliet Ashibuogwu.
