Edo State residents who violate environmental laws have been warned to desist or face sanctions by the State Government as it commenced environmental inspection of public spaces.
The Acting-General Manager, Compliance, Edo State Waste Management Board, Mrs Efosa Imade, made this known during the latest exercise of the Operation Clean up Edo campaign in Benin-City the state capital.
The exercise was aimed at clamping down on obstruction of drainage channels and other environmental infractions and to advocate to residents on maintaining a clean and healthy environment.
“The project Clean Up Edo which consists of the Ministry of Environment, PUWOV, the Public Ward Volunteers, the Waste Management Board and even the Judiciary and Ministry of Justice, has begun an inspection into public places, public facilities that channel their sewage and waste water into the public drain.
“Residents have been advised to desist from such acts and to also support efforts of the government in tackling the problem of flooding and other environmental hazards in the metropolis.” Efosa said.
According to her, “We have began an inspection into public places, public facilities that channel their sewage water, their waste water into the public drain because we have discovered that majority of the roads are failing due to the water coming out from these premises.
“We have started going through facilities to ask them to desist from sewage water and waste water coming out from different facilities because of it’s health implications” she said.
Efosa decried the loss of aesthetically pleasing appeal at one of the facilities visited in the State and according to her, “as we are standing here now you see the stench coming out from here.
“This can cause respiratory disease and apart from that, if we have an asthmatic patient here, they can get an attack and several other issues that come out from respiratory failure and looking at it now it’s even affecting the aesthetic nature of the environment”
She added, “looking at it, the other side of the road is dry there is no rain now and the whole place is looking as if it rained, everywhere is wet and I was told that there is a construction that was affected by this because the water keeps flowing out and you know water and construction don’t go together and that is also affecting the State Government’s project down the road.” Sage added.
In a brief remark, the commander, Edo State Public Works Volunteers Scheme, Mr Mukhtar Yusuf-Osagie said, “The neighbours around here complained about this place that waste water is always coming out from their premises and it smells, the stench is very high.
“A petition was written to us and we found out that even the waste water obstructs the road construction 2 buildings from here, so we came here yesterday to observe it and found out that the waste water was actually coming out of their premises, black in nature, smelling and I believe it’s coming from their bathroom or kitchen and this is unacceptable”
According to him, “this has its own health and environmental implications as well, the neighbourhood has been complaining about the smell when they channeled this thing out, so we had to contact the Ministry of Environment and Waste Management Board in conjunction with PUWOV.” Mukhtar said.
He further emphasised that violators would be appropriately sanctioned under relevant environmental laws in the State adding that, “we are here and are going to make sure necessary actions are taken on this premises and will have to abate.”
He concluded that, “the facts are there, it’s an empirical fact that the water is coming out from their premises, we don’t need a soothsayer to tell us where the water is coming from, it’s real, it’s there, it’s coming out from the premises so government will do what government needs to do.”
The Benin-City Metropolis has been adversely affected by flooding on major roads, which has affected people and their properties.
Very often within GRA, residents have complained about irredeemable losses to their cars as a result of floods on the roads.
