For effective and steady sanitation in the state,Edo State Government has resolved to take over the waste management of market places from the local government areas and has decided to award contracts for the sweeping and cleaning of the city centers, especially Benin City.

Speaking to Newsmen after the State Executive Council Meeting. The Commissioner for Environment, Prince Clem Agba said the council had dwelt on the issue of waste management, cleanliness and safety, saying the council has observed with dismay the way the city centre was dirty.

Prince Agba said, “The State Executive Council as part of the deliberations we had today, dwelt on the issues of waste management and cleanliness in the state, especially, in Benin City.

“We have observed with dismay that the city in the recent past have been very dirty, especially around our market areas. One of the resolutions we had today was to award contract for cleaning of our roads and sweeping of our roads, some of our major roads in the urban centers especially Benin city.”

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According to him, “We also decided that within the market areas which had been handled by local governments in the past, that the waste management board under the Ministry of Environment would take over that responsibility. Measures are being put in place to meet with the local government chairmen with the view to letting them know the modalities for the handling. The state would clean and the state would collect the payment from the market traders to be able to provide this service satisfactorily.”

The Commissioner explained, “Also, walk ways that have been created, especially around the market areas are meant as walk ways, not trading areas. So effective immediately, all wares that are seized within the walk ways would be destroyed. So this is just sounding as a warning to all of our traders. The issues of begging will not prevail. In the past, when we seize these wares, people would come and beg and we would return them. What we are saying now is that there is no room for begging. We would seize and immediately destroy them.”

Concluding Prince Agba said, “Government has played its own role in ensuring that we paved our roads, created walk ways for pedestrians and it is now time for our citizens to play their role because when it comes to the issues of environment, the responsibility is for one and all, not just the responsibility of only government. We expect that our citizens are very reasonable and they would do the right thing.”