EBSEPA reports
2010, shows that municipal refuse disposal pattern is very poor. It is observed
that despite presently public enlightenment programs on hygiene and health,
Abakaliki urban as a whole seems to be retrogressing in her environmental
cleanliness. Dustbins are not emptied regularly in the homes, offices and
Market Square. This encourages insects and rodents breeding and spread of
diseases.
In the immediate
past, the national sanitation exercise instead of leaving the city clean,
resulted to heaps of rubbish at various roads and junctions. Today refuse are
not collected from homes by agents as required. Refuse are dumped
indiscriminately into gutters and any
available space by the populace. The street sweepers are not given adequate
supervision and they are not well
informed so they sweep into gutters
thereby blocking drainage. This outflow onto the roads and homes during rain
has become injurious and unsightly.
There is
no placement of giant dustbins at strategic junctions to receive
household refuse from the teaming population, old refuse site are no
longer available for individual to
dispose their refuse, therefore, people
hide at night and throw refuse anywhere
thereby causing nuisance in that
area. Even in the final
disposal site, the refuse is not
adequately treated. This therefore provides a good breeding ground
for bacteria, insects and rodents. Hogs feed freely in the area thereby
encouraging zoonotic disease. The open dumps give off offensive odour and
air pollution, occasional open burning
causes smoke nuisance and
respiratory irritation to the populace.
The present final dumping site at
Enugu-Ogoja road suffers the same fate
because no specific treatment is given to the refuse.
Another major problem of refuse disposal observed in
Abakaliki urban is the irregular and
improper collection and transportation
in open vans. Sometimes these vans are overfilled with refuse and as they move
along the roads to the final disposal
sites, some of the waste fall out and litter the roads.
Also inadequate
resources to work with, and bad roads
have made regular collection of
waste from the households
impossible . This research is carried out to evaluate the municipal refuse
disposal patterns in Abakaliki urban.