By Edeki Igafe
Warri (Delta) – The Warri/Uvwie and Environs Special Area Development Agency (WUEDA) says it will invoke relevant laws against owners of illegal structures on authorised places and waterways in the area.
Its Director-General, Mr Ovuozourie Macaulay, made this known on Thursday at the First Anniversary of the Inauguration of the Governing Board of the Agency in Warri.
Macaulay said that the agency would continue to sustain its sensitisation programme on the need for people to keep their environment clean, and as well avoid erecting structures in the unauthorised places.
“We may have to invoke the relevant laws to punish would be defaulters,” the director-general said.
He recalled that WUEDA was inaugurated on Aug. 1, 2019 to among others: formulate policies and guidelines for the development of the Warri/Uvwie and Environs Special Areas.
Macaulay said that the intervention agency had done very well in its mandate in the last one year of inauguration.
“Most of the projects already awarded are at various stages of completion, while in some others, we are waiting for the rainy season to subside to mobilise for work.
“The modest milestones achieved so far with the execution of some of these projects has made tremendous impact on the environment and the residents of the environs.
“The menace of flooding and dirt are gradually disappearing from some of the areas.
“This no doubt has given credence to the vision for the establishment of this major permanent intervention agency to holistically tackle the development challenges of the areas,” he said.
Macaulay said the shoulders and medians of the roads that were cleared and cleaned before the lockdown were overgrown with weeds and unwanted vegetation, adding that illegal refuse dumps had reappeared.
He said that the agency was proposing to engage ad hoc staff comprising sweepers, monitors, environmental marshal and task force to carry out follow-up maintenance works in the agency’s areas of mandate.
“To sustain the tempo and mileage already achieved, the agency will put in place a task force and other necessary measures to curtail and sustain the works that had been done and those to be done subsequently.
“The agency intends to commence the clearing of the environs, particularly the 11.5 kilometres NPA By-pass, as well as the new Airport Road from Osubi as soon as the dry season begins,” he said.
The WUEDA chief commended the traditional rulers and youths from creating an enabling environment for the agency to be able to carry out its mandates peacefully.
He, however, appealed to the residents to be law abiding and continue to support the government in its determination to achieve a better and prosperous society.
(NAN)
