BY: Vincent Ene

Recently there has been an increase of refuse in the once cleanest city in the country. With the dissolution of the Cross River Urban Development Authority which was founded by Donald Duke government-led administration to check and ensure proper waste disposal, the new agency called the Cross River Waste Management Agency (CRWMA) has been lagging performance wise recently.

Going through the City road junctions, streets, and close. There has been a great harvest for flies and thescavengers. Waste rising to knee, waist, and shoulder level in some streets has caused both health, environmental, and transportation hazards.

In the area of health hazards people residing in areas of this undisposed waste are in danger of airborne and waterborne diseases especially those who do businesses that involve open shopping such as bean cake sellers, and skewed meat (suya) sellers and small chops. Being that these businesses choose strategic areas for proper market returns exposes both sellers and buyers to health hazards.

For the commuters the story is also not different, many drivers have to battle between dodging the dangerous car wrecking potholes and swerving tactically around the mountain of refuse to get to their destination. This dangerous maneuvers is likely to cause an accident for both drivers and pedestrians.

This everyday chaos has caused residents to decry the deplorable condition of the once prided cleanest and greenest city in the nation to the government.

Furthermore, due to present prevailing conditions, many opinions have been postulated. Someviewpoints of the populace suggest that due to the poor or lack of payment of salaries accrued to the waste disposal agency, this has become the bedrock to the neglect of duties while another viewpoint thinks that the recent rise in the political climate has made the government to be more concerned about political ambitions than the welfare of the citizens.

Despite the foregoing circumstances, the general manager of the Cross River Waste Management Agency, Mr. Sunday Oko has said that there are recent challenges that have hindered the work of the agency from being effective but they have started the evacuation of waste, especially in the core areas of the city such as Mbukpa, Watt market, and Etim Edem park. He added that in a short time the city would be brought to sanity.