By Stanley Onyekwere
The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has collected and evacuated about 11,869 tonnes of solid wastes within the Federal Capital City (FCC) between January and May this year.
It was gathered that AEPB, which is one of the agencies under Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AEPB) of the FCT Administration collected the waste generated largely from human and industrial activities in phases 1, 2 and 3 of the city are disposed at the designated God’s dump site.
According to the Abuja Digest, the official publication of the FCTA, within last five months, daily solid waste generation rose to 768.486 kilogrammes, representing an average waste generation of 75 percent per day.
The AEPB charged with the statutory responsibility of waste management, which involves collection, transportation, disposal and treatment, needs additional machinery for effective and efficient management of the waste.
It was also revealed that proper sorting of generated waste at source needs to be improved upon, thereby reducing the amount of refuse that gets to the Gods Dump site, which increases the lifespan of the the dump site.
However, the Administration expressed concern over the alarming rate of indiscriminate disposal of waste by residents despite its concerted efforts to evacuate same, and warning of stiff penalty against defaulters.
