‘Nigeria generates 3.2 million tonnes of waste annually’

[Mirror]

Minister of Enviroment, Hajiya Hadiza Mailafiya, has revealed that the nation generates approximately 3.2 million tonnes of waste, which, if re-cycled, can boost the economy. She also attributed the prevailing morbidity and mortality profile in the nation to high rate of infections and parasitic diseases, especially in the rural areas.

Mailafiya, in her address in Minna, Niger State at the 2013 National Environmental Sanitation Day commoration said the 3.2 million refuge collected was aside from the waste generated from other sources in the country.

She explained that the challenges of managing waste in Nigeria was becoming increasingly hard, ading that as cities, towns around the nation expand and grow, the quantum of waste generated increases.

"A typical environment in Niheria utilises dumpsites that are not properly managed and within which there is no designated area for any category of waste. If the refuge dumpsite is filled up it becomes too large to manage thereby serving as a health hazard and other forms of environmental degradation," she said.

She observed that the magnitude of the problems caused by environmental sanitation calls for collective responsibilty by all stakeholders to imbibe safe and hygienic sanitation behaviour as well as ensure access to safe sanitation facilities.

The minister eexplained that it was against that backdrop that the Federal Ministry of Environment embarked on partnership with the Niger State government, on a number of programmes such presidential initiative on afforestation and provision of plastic waste re-cycling plant that is yet to be commissioned.

Mailafiya further drew the attention of the 36 state governors to the reduction in the figure of Environmental Health Officers in the nation, adding that, "This class of health workers is indispensable in the efforts to ensure sustained environmental sanitation rejuvenation."

National Mirror