Disquiet in Plateau over refuse evacuation

The Plateau State government recently privatised waste evacuation to ensure an effective handling of cleanliness of the state.

However, there was a discrepancy between the private waste operators and the government.

While some of the operators said there was no proper sensitization on the part of the government so that the people can understand the new means of waste disposal and evacuation, the government said on the contrary, there was adequate sensitization. 

However, the state government said it would not take the indiscriminate littering of refuse anymore and gave a two weeks’ ultimatum to the operators to perform or face sanctions. 

Speaking while monitoring and evaluating of the activities of the waste evacuators in Jos-Bukuru metropolis, the Commissioner of Environment, Abdullahi Abbas, said the state government had since about six months ago, privatized waste evacuation but still discovered that Jos-Bukuru metropolis was still not as clean as expected which led to the ultimatum served on the evacuators. 

On the issue of sensitization, the commissioner said they have done their best, including holding interactive sessions with many organizations, NGO’s and talk shows on radio stations.

Similarly, Governor Simon Bako Lalong had reiterated the ultimatum during an interactive with journalists at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat in Jos, saying he was disappointed with the outcome of the privatization of waste disposal and that despite the excuses given by the operators  and other stakeholders, he would not condone it.

Meanwhile, some of the waste operators have said the prevailing situation was not their fault. 

One of the operators in charge of Zone 1 comprising of Maraban Jama’a, Du and Bukuru express road to Vom, Stephen Kitnanka, said they have invested money in the project to keep Plateau State clean before being licensed to operate.

Kitnanka said the government asked them to invest in the project which they did, but that the same government was now treating them as employees which, he maintained, they were not.

While stressing that they are investors and not employees, he noted that they did the enumeration of houses which was supposed to have been done by the government, adding that when an investor is coming government is always required to provide adequate data along the line the investor is supposed to invest/operate.

Another operator, in charge of Zones 2 and 10, covering Bukuru Central, Dorawa, Agwan Doki, Chanchangi Estate, British up to Masallacin Juma’a and Terminus area in Jos city, Henry Tunkuyo, said the challenge was on sensitization because they now have to pack the waste from the source (the people’s houses) for a token and not the system whereby the residents dropped their waste on the streets for government to come and evacuate. 

Tunkuyo also said they are not supposed to be the enforcer of a law, noting that it is the function of government which should also tell the people that it (government) has nothing to do with waste evacuation anymore.

He said government should tell the people that evacuation is now handled by private hands who they should cooperate with in terms of payment to evacuate their waste. 

According to him, an average of five to six trucks are required to be deployed weekly in a zone, apart from the staff that they paid N500 daily and other expenses they incur. 

Another operator, Juliet Kinrin, said the people were not complying because they still have that mentality that the refuse was being collected for free rather than being paid for, adding that the government, which had all the power at its disposal had not done much in terms of enlightenment and enforcement. 

Kinrin, whose Zone 7 covers Oshe, Tudun Wada and Mando Village, said if the private operators, in order to recover their money, begin to enforce the policy, it could lead to crises and anarchy as the people could attack them.

Meanwhile, even as the ultimatum has already wound down, nothing has been done by both parties on the situation as at the time of this report.

But the body languages of both the government and that of the operators suggest that they all want an amicable solution that would boost the original plan of keeping the state, especially the capital city and environs, clean.