Anambra transits from waste movement to waste management

ANAMBRA State Commissioner for Environment Arch.Michael Maduakonam Okonkwo has said that the state would transit from waste movement to waste management as it is obtained in other climbes.
He said it was a policy of the Willie Obiano administration that waste collection and evacuation would no longer be a movement from the point of collection to the point of deposit but a complete departure from the status quo such that the state would fashion out ways of revenue generation through proper waste management.
Okonkwo, who disclosed this to our correspondent in his office at the state secretariat complex Awka, noted that the state governor was thinking about waste to wealth, waste to energy and a host of others that could be generated through proper waste management.
He said that henceforth, Governor Obiano has directed that waste bins be placed along the streets across the state with a view to sorting waste for recycling rather than stuff them at dump sites.
On issues concerning flood and erosion, the commissioner stated that currently, Anambra State has over 900 active erosion sites but the leadership of Governor Willie Obiano, according to him, is aggressively ameliorating the situation.
He said government was pursuing remediation of erosion from four vital areas viz direct state government interventions, assistance from federal government, ecological funds, as well as through Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Plan (NEWMAP) pointing out that NEWMAP has spent over N14 billion in counter part funding with the Anambra State Government to intervene in erosion control.
He further disclosed that the erosion menace threatening the premises of the Federal High Court in Awka was being remediated and that the contractor handling the erosion control project was Infrastructure Development Company (IDC), emphasising that credit should be given to Governor Willie Obiano for his rapid response to the erosion problem confronting the Federal High Court compound in Awka.
The commissioner equally disclosed that the Ministry of Environment had embarked on desilting of drainages across the state to mitigate flooding as well as open up the water ways.