By Alice Onukwugha
The problem of the collection, management and disposal of waste continues to feature prominently in major towns and cities across African countries.
This is so, as most business persons, often referred to as market women/men dispose of their garbage indiscriminately.
In Rivers State, for instance, former Governor Nyesom Wike, at some point decried that despite spending five hundred thousand naria monthly on refuse disposal, the government is not able to return Port Harcourt to it’s garden city status
The Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA), insists on 6.pm-6am time for refuse disposal. But despite these measures, people are found disposing off their refuse and unapproved hours, thus making the city and it’s streets an eyesore, especially market places.
Also at the front burner of the problem, is lack of proper dump sites for cleared refuses. The result of this, is the contamination of water bodies and to the spread of waterborne diseases and other health hazards as such refuse find their way into the waters through rain fall and flooding.
Related Posts
In most African countries, waste generation is the result of a rapidly growing urban population, along with the changing patterns of production and consumption inherent to a more urban lifestyle and the consequent industrialization. Manufacturing industries account for a significant part of Africa’s resource consumption and waste generation.
A report published by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), indicated that Micro-small and medium-sized enterprises, vital to economic growth, are the backbone of the manufacturing sector in developing countries.
According to the report, SMEs are often resource inefficient and high polluters, however, due to the use of obsolete technologies in their operations, lack of properly engineered disposal sites and waste treatment plants, low awareness of proper waste management approaches, lack of the needed waste collection and recycling technology, use of unskilled labour, poor operating practices and unsustainable production and consumption of natural resources.
These problems are particularly significant in terms of resource productivity, innovation, energy management, waste management, pollution control, human resource development, technological capability, awareness and access to financing.
The above problems highlight the need to develop ecologically sustainable industries and to foster a shift to more sustainable
consumption and production patterns and provide new impetus to promote the transition to more sustainable industrial systems.
In Rivers State, for instance, there are environmental laws, but despite passing such laws, the problem has not been solved.
States, Federal Government and relevant agencies, must therefore shifts it’s focus from waste disposal to converting such waste to by-products that create both wealth and employment in order to achieve a cleaner and greener environment.
