Gov. Abba Yusuf of Kano State has approved an emergency refuse evacuation plan for immediate clearing of refuse heaps on the streets of Kano metropolis to avert flooding.
This is contained in a statement issued by his Press Secretary, Malam Bature Dawin-Tofa, on Friday in Kano.
Yusuf said lackadaisical attitude of the immediate past administration towards environmental hygiene may cause the state unimaginable losses, resulting from flooding in the rainy season, if major drainages blocked by garbage were not desilted immediately.
The governor has approved Operation Nazafa, a Task Force on Refuse Disposal, Evacuation of Drainages and Streets Cleaning, comprising different stakeholder groups in the state.
He described as unfortunate the outright sale of the critical assets of the State’s Refuse Management and Sanitation Board (REMASAB) to family members and friends of his predecessor under the guise of an alleged “dubious Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement”.
According to Yusuf, the arrangement is making it difficult to achieve effective solid waste management in the state.
”They have sold all the critical assets including trucks belonging to REMASAB.
“We have no option than to hire tippers and other equipment to quickly clear the dumps from the streets in a bid to restore efficient environmental sanitation in Kano.
”We have identified major refuse dumping sites in the city and therefore categorized them into five zones for efficient and effective evacuation that will start soon.
“The operation will be carried out day and night until everything in Kano is cleaned up,” the governor said.
Yusuf therefore urged the residents to cooperate with the officials carrying out the refuse evacuation exercise in the coming days in order to prevent flood, pollution and health hazards associated with the poor environmental hygiene.
