AEPB restates commitment to hygienic environment

The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has said it is committed to waste management to provide a safe and hygienic environment for residents of the FCT.

The acting director of the board, Omolola Oluwatoyin Olanipekun, who represented the FCT minister at a waste summit on ‘Sustainable Management of Municipal Waste, Challenges, Opportunities and Policies in Nigeria’, said they would brace up to the challenge.

She called for a national policy on waste management to properly manage and benefit from the opportunities inherent in disposable waste, possibly showcase new ideas, technology, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and much more recycling opportunities which would be implemented for the benefit of the people.

Also speaking at the summit, the convener and CEO of Mezzagers Environmental Services, Abiemi Sanusi, said it was an opportunity for experts to come together and offer solutions on how to manage waste, noting that waste management starts from where it was generated and progresses to where it was dumped.

He said: “We want to discuss so many challenges associated with this process and how we can manage them. Only 40 per cent of waste is collected in Nigeria and this is not good enough. For us to collect about 90 to 95 percent of waste, we need a national waste policy.

“Based on World Bank estimate of waste generation by countries and regions of the world, Nigeria’s total waste generation presently, is estimated to be 25 million tons/year out of which urban waste generation is 40,959 tons/day,” Sanusi said.