ABUJA – Some residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Thursday expressed mixed reactions to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board’s (AEPB) new environmental sanitation initiative for mass housing estates.
The AEPB had announced that residents of estates should prepare to take charge of sanitation responsibilities in their environment.
While some residents commended the new initiative, others decried it, saying it was improper for the government to pass on its responsibility to the residents.
For Mr Abdulkareem Yusuf, a resident of Lokogoma Estate, Abuja, the idea is commendable as it will ensure that individuals take care of some basic duties.
“It is not a bad idea but modalities should be properly worked out so that the residents would not have complaints.
“The issue of regulation should be taken seriously so that the process does not suffer avoidable neglect and abuse,’’ he said.
Mr Freeman Leslie, an Estate Manager at Sun City Estate, Abuja, also commended AEPB’S initiative.
He said that residents of Sun City estate had already taken charge of sanitation in the area, adding that the exercise was effective.
“This new initiative by AEPB is good for sustainable growth and this is what we have been doing at Sun City,’’ he said.
He also advised the board to improve on its regulation and enforcement duties to check residents who might want to abuse the system by refusing to cooperate with their resident associations.
Mr Olusanmi Kayode, a resident of Saraha Estate, Abuja, advised the board to adopt private sector style of management for sustainable environmental clean-up.
“There are multilateral organisations that are willing to finance environmental projects; they should be approached for partnership,’’ he suggested.
Speaking against the plan, Mr Salisu Abdulrahman, a resident of Works and Housing Estate, Gwarimpa, said that sanitation was too important to be left in the hands of residents.
According to him, handing over sanitation issue to estate residents is tantamount to abdication of responsibility on the part of the AEPB. [eap_ad_1] He observed that the role of the AEPB was to ensure that all residents of the FCT obeyed environmental sanitation laws.
“Cleanliness is very crucial to our well-being and it is not advisable for government to abdicate such a responsibility in the name of Public Private Partnership.
“Residents of the FCT should be made to abide by certain rules and regulations to maintain sanity in the territory.
“AEPB should increase sensitisation, enforce existing environmental laws and punish offenders before involving resident associations in environmental sanitation,’’ he said.
Making further clarification on the new initiative, Mr Lawan Shehu, AEPB’S Acting Director, said that the board would continue to take charge of sanitation of the city centre but could not effectively take charge of 86 estates in the territory.
He said that the need to ensure adequate sanitation of all parts of the FCT informed the idea of involving residents of the estates.
“There are 86 mass housing estates in Abuja and 10 of them have already organised themselves into resident associations to saintise their environment.
“We want the remaining 76 to take similar steps so that we can concentrate on the capital city.
“The idea is for residents associations of these mass housing estates to levy themselves and contract AEPB licensed contractors and they have two weeks to do this,’’ he said. (NAN)
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