Any Person Condemning ASWAMA Is An Enemy Of Soludo's Government -- Okonkwo
...tasks Ocha-Brigade to arrest scavengers scattering wastes on Anambra Roads
BY Raymond Ozoji, Awka
Arch. Okonkwo Chukwuka Williams, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of OC Bravo Global Impes has stated that any person condemning or sabotaging the efforts of Anambra State Waste Management Authority (ASWAMA) is an enemy of the Soludo administration.
Okonkwo who is a Pay-Direct Contractor on waste evacuation in Awka-South Local Government Area of the state, also tasked the Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra (Ocha-Brigade) to henceforth clampdown and arrest scavengers, scrab-takers and a host of others who go to litre points, dump sites and other government designated bins to scatter wastes on the roads in search of scrabs.
Okonkwo who spoke exclusively to HEADLINE NEWS in his office in Awka, emphasized the urgent need for Ocha-Brigade to wade into the situation because he believes that scavengers are littering the environment and equally make efforts of waste collectors meaningless.
He said that waste collection in Anambra and particularly Awka is very difficult as he spends over N2 Million on monthly basis to ensure that Awka is kept clean and healthy. That there is a dire need for government to assist especially Pay-Direct Waste Contractors with waste evacuation vehicles and other materials to make their jobs a lot easier.
According to him, the support of government, Ocha-Brigade and the citizens are needed to enable waste collectors serve them better. He said poor attitudes to the environment is a serious menace as citizens prefer to scatter wastes along the roads instead of packaging them very well and dumping them at the nearest litter point for onward evacuation.
OC Bravo noted that Ocha-Brigade is expected to play a viral role in addressing the menace of waste pickers, scavengers and others who constitute threats to the environment through their activities.
He therefore posited that Ocha-Brigade has enough human resources to position their personnel at government designated bins across the state to put a stop to environmental hazards caused by scavengers, adding that the main purpose of creating Ocha-Brigade is to make Anambra clean and healthy.
He said there are some houses in Awka with blocked drainages while others have dirts abandoned in the compound for over five years yet people still live there. That Ocha-Brigade should carryout sanitary inspections across houses in the state to find out the level of decay in some places even as he said that waste contractors are certainly not the problem of unclean and unhealthy environment.
Okonkwo who told HEADLINE NEWS that he has about 30 workers under his salary scheme, said the efforts of waste contractors shouldn't be sabotaged in whatever guise as they go through dire financial ordeals to remove waste from the environment even as he suggested that Ocha-Brigade should arrest people who don't bag their wastes but pour them on the ground indiscriminately.
He noted that all waste contractors either Government Paid or Pay-Direct are working under the Anambra State Waste Management Authority (ASWAMA ); that there is need for ASWAMA to prevail on government to assist waste contractors in the areas of funding as well as provision of amenities like vehicles so they can function more proactively.
According to him, what waste contractors need is assistance and motivation not sabotage as they work on daily basis including Sundays to keep the state clean, healthy and habitable while requesting also government assistance in the collection of sanitation levies from the citizenry.
He however reiterated that waste collection is capital intensive as he pays for Demand Notices from ASWAMA; pay for court summons; pay court bailiffs to serve court summons; pay security agents to carryout arrests and pay lawyers for litigations.
That his company OC Bravo Global Impes served about 200 court summons on defaulters on 8th August this year over failure to pay their sanitation levies for 2024.
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