Residents of Calabar, the Cross River State capital, on Monday, expressed happiness as the state government resumed evacuation of refuse in the metropolis.
Recall that it was reported that for many weeks refuse was not evacuated from many parts of the city as a result of faulty equipment at the Lemna Dumpsite which resulted to massive piles of waste.
Mr Sunday Oko, the General Manager, Cross River Waste Management Agency, said the agency was carrying out a simultaneous evacuation at different spots.
Oko said that for the past few weeks the agency had been trying to fix broken down equipment at the only dumpsite in Calabar which resulted in the embarrassing situation the city found itself in.
He dismissed rumours making the rounds that the state government was paying more attention to political matters, adding that the challenge had nothing to do with the political issues in the state.
He said, “It is our duty to evacuate waste and keep the state clean. We were not happy with what happened in the last few weeks; where waste blocked some roads.
“It is the right of the people of Cross River to have a clean environment; that was why when they complained that wastes were not being evacuated, we understood because the city used to be the cleanest in the nation.
“Our appeal to the people is to stop dumping refuse on the streets and instead use the skip bins provided by government. If you move round the city, you will notice that our bins are empty because the people prefer to throw their waste on the floor.
“We use skip trucks to evacuate the bins. These trucks are just supposed to come and lift the bins to the dumpsite.
“When the wastes are on the ground, the workers will spend one hour scooping it into the bins before moving to the dumpsite. This creates unnecessary delays in waste evacuation in the city. So I appeal to residents to help us to serve them better.” (NAN)
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