Governor Nyesom Wike,
Rivers State
THE Rivers state government says it spends a whopping N500 million monthly on the management of waste and sanitation in the state.
The State Governor, Nyesom Wike who made the revelation during a media interaction, yesterday as part of activities marking his third anniversary in office lamented that despite the huge spending the sanitation level of sanitation in the state was still below an acceptable level.
He said environmental sanitation is one area his government needed serious improvements noting “one area we have not succeeded is the area of refuse disposal.”
“It is an area that is bothering us, I must tell you. But it is an area that must be tackled”, he lamented. “It is like it is inherent in us to a liter. I can tell you I have sleepless nights over how to solve it”, he added.
The Governor explained that the situation is not because the government has not done enough but blamed it on poor sanitation habit of the people who he said take delight in littering the refuse dumps immediately after they were cleared.
Responding to the reason behind the increasing mountain of refuse dumps defying efforts to maintain the Garden City status of the state he stated that the government had concluded plans to take the issue of sanitation head on saying the state would soon acquire facilities for 20,000 waste bins.
He added that government would also soon complete a waste to wealth facility commenced by the past administration adding that people across the state would soon begin to pay for refuse disposal.
He stressed that immediately after activities marking the 3rd-anniversary government would clamp down on street traders who he stated were culprits in defacing the environment with their trading activities.
On women and youth empowerment, Governor Wike said he has raised N500-million as a grant to elder women in the state doing business to improve what they are doing saying it was “to improve their trading, and it is a grant, not to be paid back.”
Wike said; “and if I have my way, we will bring women into leadership positions. I have worked with women who are very intelligent. As at today, the entire 23 Deputy Chairperson of the local governments and over 150 councillors across the 23 local governments are women. You may not understand the effect of it. When women are in leadership positions they can be very effective. So I feel we should support them to bring out their potentials.
The Governor added that the Real Madrid Football Academy, which foundation stone would be laid on May 28 is targeted at the youths to grant opportunities to talented youths in the state who have the dream of making a career in football and in coaching, stressing that it was a catch them young programme.
He said that was, in addition, many other efforts to empower youths in the state which included the N200-million monthly non-interest loan.
He urged the youth entrepreneurs to take advantage of the loan saying that all they require to qualify for the loan was just a prominent citizen of the state to sign as collateral for them.
Read more at www.armanikedu.blogspot.com
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