The environmental firm ZL Global Alliance, in partnership with the Ondo State Government for integrated waste management, has called upon the state government to grant it the authority to enforce sanitation laws in the state.
The firm is concerned about the residents’ attitudes toward waste disposal and suggests that monitoring and enforcing existing sanitation laws would help address indiscriminate waste disposal.
Abiola Bashorun, the Group Managing Director of ZL Global Alliance, emphasized the need for monitoring and enforcement teams to encourage a shift in people’s attitudes toward environmental sanitation. She recommends that the state government empower ZLGA to conduct enforcement and monitoring to put an end to the continuous littering of waste on the streets by residents of the state.
Bashorun pointed out that the failure of the state government to apprehend and prosecute residents who continually dump waste on major streets has exacerbated the situation. She also expressed frustration with situations in which waste management company workers start clearing waste on major streets across the state as early as 5 a.m. daily, only to find the streets littered again within one or two hours.
She said, “The Ondo State Waste Management Authority as well as the parent ministry, the state ministry of environment, should also wake up to their assigned responsibilities of enforcing environmental laws, rules, and regulations. It is not enough to go out only on monthly environmental sanitation days, much more is required.
“The ZL Global Alliance is a private company that cannot carry out enforcement of government environmental laws. It is the duty of the Ondo State government through the Ministry of Environment and Waste Management Authority to enforce these laws and ensure the cleanliness of the state. We are going to sort this out, we wish we could carry out enforcement and monitoring of waste management if empowered.
“Since ZL Global Alliance came into Ondo State, the company has not neglected its duties and responsibilities as explicitly spelt out in the contractual agreements with the state government, principally in the management of public waste and other matters thereto related.”
The waste manager also called for a special specialized trash collection truck in every neighborhood instead of indiscriminate dumping of waste by the residents, saying this would also be of help.
“There is a need for residents to buy refuse bag and baskets and put their dirts for easy evacuation instead of the habitual practices of throwing wastes into drains and rivers especially during rain,” she stressed.
She, however, expressed assurance that waste deposited on major highways and major streets across the state would be a thing of the past in the next few weeks, saying the company had never failed to discharge its duties in accordance with the mandates given to it by the state government.
Bashorun called on residents of the state to imbibe the attitude of proper waste disposal with the use of waste bins instead of indiscriminate dumping by the roadside.
