By Okechukwu Onuegbu
Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA), Wednesday, embarked on distilling of drainages around the Anambra State capital city to save residents from devastating impact of climate change.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, ACTDA, Hon. Osita Ọnuko, who led a team of evacutors and labourers, around the Zik's avenue of old Onitsha -Enugu road by Awka, said he was moved by the sufferings of people around the area.
According to Ọnuko, some of the residents and business owners have lost their properties to flooding because sands and plastics blocked drainages, thereby forcing water to flow off the road, even as stench oozing from the dirty drainages breeds mosquitoes and sicknesses.
"Our people often dump refuse indiscriminately especially during the raining season mostly because of ignorance of the devastating effects on people. We should know that plastic waste is very dangerous because it does not decompose easily unlike other waste.
"I have urged town-criers, media and others to help in sensitising the public to stop disposing waste on the drainage whether in the raining season or Sun. We have provided receptacles and we urge people to use them in disposing their wastes accordingly," he encouraged the masses.
Ọnuko also encouraged the law enforcement agents, including the Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra (OCHA) brigade to make use of the relevant laws in the State and apprehend and prosecute those engaging in indiscriminate waste disposals accordingly to serve as deterrents to others.
Business owners and residents of the area, including Mr Gabriel Tabugbo and Evelyn Nwosu, thanked the government for embarking on the distilling the area but advocated for expanding of the drainages sanctioning of those engaging on discriminate waste disposals.