Lack of enforcement of sanitation laws and inability to widen the scope of environmental sanitation on the part of government have been identified as major causes the monthly environmental sanitation across Delta State has failed to achieve its needed results.
The State Commissioner for Environment, Chris Onogba, dropped the hint while addressing members of the Indigenous Correspondents’ Chapel (ICC),
Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Delta State Council, during a courtesy call in Asaba.
According to the Environment Commissioner who disclosed that he has taken time to find out why the monthly sanitation has not yielded the needed results said: “it is because government Has not done enforcement as government should have done it. If the enforcement is effective, people will come out to clean their environment.
“We have not also actually widen the scope. What we want to do now is to widen the scope. We are going to get more stakeholders involved. There is a Committee that is setup in the last Exco meeting, headed by the Deputy Governor. I am the Vice chairman of that Committee. We are looking at how we can have an effective sanitation exercise in Delta.
“One of the recommendation is that it is going to be community based. On that day, Council chairmen, Councilors and all the major stakeholders will come out for enforcement. The taskforce on environment will be there. So, if we widen the scope in terms of compliance, monitoring, enforcement and we try to get more people involved, strategic engagement and do sensitization, I can tell you that before long, we will be able to achieve it”.
He disclosed that the Committee has held its maiden meeting as plans are on top gear to come out with a blue print on how to make it work, “of course it will work, I can assure you that it will work”, stressing that everybody would need to take ownership of their environment, describing it as the right approach to a cleaner environment.
He maintained that the cleaner the environment, the lesser the money spent looking after the health of the citizens.
