From Yakubu Busari, Jos
Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State
The Acting General Manager of Plateau Environmental Protection & Sanitation Agency (PEPSA) ,Mr Gabriel Bako Nshem has warned the general public against indiscriminate dumping of waste in Jos /Bukuru metropolis to avoid the outbreak of an epidemic in the metropolis.
Nshem stated this during an exclusive interview held at the state secretariat on Thursday in Jos, saying PEPSA is saddle with the responsibility of managing waste product within Jos /Bukuru as stipulated by law which capital intensive in nature.
According to him,”In managing waste you need a lot of funding to measure up to some health standard. The state government under the leadership of Governor Simon Lalong has graciously approved funds to enable the agency to go round the major streets of communities to make sure they are clean and cleared of the waste within Jos /Bukuru metropolis. To meet our target and cope in the face of rising cost of fueling most vehicles, we have now decided to engage private waste disposal firms.
He explained further that the state governor set up a committee of about 14 companies to manage waste.
“The waste operators were divided into two group to various communities within Jos /Bukuru but to our dismay after their screening and acceptance to be operators we now discovered that most of them don’t have the necessary requirement leading to our experiencing serious challenges of waste disposal within Jos /Bukuru.”
Gabriel Bako stressed that in unlike in some states in the country where levies are charged for dumping of waste close to their businesses, Plateau state government “is not asking people to pay.”
“We went in research about on the operators not showing up at the premises of the shop owners and yet at the end of the month they come for payment. That was why the government decided to ban the operators. However, the state government intervened by asking PEPSA to come in and commence cleaning within city.”
He lamented that the attitude of indiscriminate dumping of waste had also become a thing of concern whereby some people are trying to thwart the state government effort and the agency on waste disposal by evacuating it within the city.
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