By Chioma Onuegbu, Uyo
Akwa Ibom State government has concluded arrangements to resuscitate the abandoned Integrated Solid Waste Management Plant, Ekritam in Itu local government area, established by the Federal government in 2006 at the cost of N250million.
The Commissioner for Environment, Mr Charles Udoh who made the disclosure yesterday while fielding question from newsmen in Uyo, said he had already given all the necessary papers he got from the federal ministry of Environment to the consultant to start work.
Udoh stressed that the contractor is expected to start work after 90days of receiving the papers, otherwise, the government will take it and give it to another contractor.
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His words, “So the ball is now in the court of the Consultant. But let me say here that the only way or process we dispose of waste in Akwa Ibom is by landfilling. So when I came on Board I said that is not sustainable and I realised from the files that in 2006 that the Federal government had approved seven States in Nigeria to have an Integrated Solid Waste management plant.
“As well in 2006, the Federal government had releases N250million to those seven States. Now, Akwa Ibom was a beneficiary. Federal Government also appointed a consultant for each of those States and deployed that money. For Akwa Ibom, the money was collected and the plant was built in Ekritam, in Itu LGA. After building it they shut it down and it became a game reserve.
“So when I came I said that plant cannot be lying fallow, so I went to see the Minister of Environment and told him that of all the seven states, it is only the one sited in Akwa Ibom that never took off, all others were functioning except Akwa Ibom. The good news is that today we are in the process of resuscitating that plant”
The Commissioner attributed the perennial flooding problem always experienced in Uyo metropolis to successive government inability to judiciously follow the drainage Master Plan for Uyo, the state capital, and also as a result of residents building houses on water channels.
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He also identified noise pollution as another critical and worrisome environmental issue that his ministry would also deal with, adding that after embarking on adequate Sensitization and awareness campaigns the state would start to clamp down on offenders
“There is something that I want us to learn here, that most of the environmental problems we are tackling in the state are man-made problems. That is why public education, sensitization is important.
” Unfortunately, the drainage master plan for Uyo was not followed in the past, so today we are building an 8.4kilometers drains that will take water from Atiku Abubakar up to the Secretariat roundabout, then link it up to the Women Development Center along IBB Way, into Atan Offot up to the PDP secretariat.
“The drainage we are building will be able to carry, will carry 50,000 litres of water per second. That is what we are doing about the IBB Way flood project. We also sought emergency intervention around the Etim Umanah and Anua which is expected to be commissioned by August”, Udoh said.
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