Why monthly sanitation exercise is without restriction in Abuja - AEPB
The Abuja Environment Protection Board (AEPB) has said that the monthly sanitation exercise is still on in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) but without restriction because residents in the territory are responsible enough to clean up their environment.
The acting director of the Board, Mrs. Aishat Adebayo, who made this known during a quarterly interactive session with FCT residents, said the residents are enlightened and intelligent enough to realize the importance of keeping their environment clean.
“We are not going round to shut down the road or market but we believe that we are all responsible enough in the city to be able to clean up our environment during the last Saturday of the month.
“We also use this medium to send the messages out that the sanitation is still on ground, government is giving you the opportunity to clean up the environment. You are not even supposed to be doing it once in a month but that forum has been created for you to clean up your environment once in a month,” she said.
Some residents, during the interactive meeting, had called on the board to ensure that residents comply strictly to the monthly sanitation exercise in order to enhance the effort of the board in making Abuja an excellent city.
According to a resident representing an estate in Lokogoma, there is need for the government to introduce the monthly sanitation exercise as is being done in some states, “I know there used to be sanitation days in some states. I am not too sure we have it in Abuja because the last Saturday of the month is the day we have our meetings in the estate and when you try to ask people to come for meeting they say there is no sanitation in Abuja.”
“If you have those two free hours, it would go a long way in enabling people do some cleaning. The world would be a better place if I clean my house and you clean yours, though if you do not, it does not make any difference,” he stated.
A representative of Uromi Close in Garki, Obiajuna Nicholas, commended the effort of the Board in maintaining a sustainable environment in the FCT.
He added that the residents of the Close had recently passed a constitution to back sanitation in the area, “We do not joke with our sanitation days even if the government says it is not official, in our place it is official because that day nobody goes out.
“I want to encourage residents of Abuja to make efforts to hold meetings, we do not wait for the government to come and clean our environment for us,” he said.
The interactive meeting was attended by the FCT office of the National Orientation Agency, FCT Public Complaints Commission and residents of various areas of the FCT.