By Benson Okobi-allanah
Despite this fearful curse laid on any person that defiles the order restraining members of the public from dumping refuse here as you can see, some recalcitrant (stubborn) persons still go ahead to dump refuse here. This refuse dump is on tom halim street. Residents of tom halim street defiantly dump refuse on the side of the tarred street they are supposed to be jealously maintaining: are we really beasts in human form like the whiteman tries to us?
Mrs. Nmoghalu memeh, a resident of tom halim street has flayed against the allegation that scavengers are the ones messing their street, and other areas around there.
She spoke when some concerned residents of the capital city under the ageis of concerned residents of asaba city (conrac) stormed there to protest the dirty state of the street, the neighbouring okolotu road and environs.
But in a swift reaction to the allegation, mrs. Nmoghalu memeh, a trader at the midwifery market, said it was they the residents that was messing up the street by gathering waste on the tarred roads and positioning their dust-bins on the tarred roads, thus, causing obstructions to motorists and pedestrians making use of them, and not scavengers as alleged.
Tom halim street is snake-like in form. It is off the popular and busy nnebisi road immediately after stanbic bank plc, and forms one of the streets which terminal points end at the long-stretched okolotu street which starts from the northern flank of stephen keshi international stadium and ends at usonia street facing uzoigwe primary school.
The stretch of tom halim street from nnebisi road is now a bit neat after the press raised alarm consistently over its unkempt state; while the other stretch of the same tom halim that leads to okolotu is where all manners of refuse in this world could be found, are heaped, with a curse written on a fence close by to scare away any resident attempting to dump refuse there. Despite that fear-instilling curse, some recalcitrant residents still find the place a more convenient place to be dumping their refuse. And on the fence is written: ‘’this land belongs to idumu-odikpe.’’
The question now is why on earth has tom halim street, a street that has the benefit of being tarred by the government, been chosen by the residents to be dumping their refuse?
End of the street, by okolotu street, is an eye-sore. It is among the most unkempt streets in asaba metropolis, others being ekwo street by stop abortion, stretching off st. Brigid’s girls college road to grand hotel, some un-tarred streets off nnebisi road, all ime-ogbe (innards of the city mostly inhabited by the natives), cable point etc.
It is indeed horrific seeing refuse littering all over the ground with no body doing anything to clear them.
‘’It is usually in the night, and early mo-mo (early morning) these refuse you see are dumped on the roads. We here on tom halim cannot be exonerated from not being part of that dump refuse on the ground. We are guilty as well. But government is not carrying out effective monitoring of the polluted and refuse-filled environments. Taskforce members are not working as expected. Why is it that these taskforce members cannot be made to run shift, some working in the night, while others work in the morning time? Mrs. Mabel eruotor, residing in at halim street asked.
All stakeholders in environmental matters, mabel eruotor noted, are not being pro-active enough. She says publishing in the newspapers or announcing that environmental defaulters would be dealt with if caught, was not what was expected of them; but rather, a very stringent measure aimed at arresting the ugly situation permanently.
She bemoaned the way drainages are being clogged with refuse and other waste materials, and even when excavated from the drainages, are left abandoned mostly on the road instead of the road shoulders.
Mrs. Mabel eruotor called on all authorities concerned to live up to expectation because it was not enough asking people to stop throwing waste materials anyhow on the road without putting them to proper check.
She calls on all those who perpetrate such nefarious acts not to forget the fact that if no one sees them as they pour refuse indiscriminately on the roads, that god in heaven do see them as nothing is hidden under the sun, stating that most evils that befall some persons today is as a result of their willful decision to remain in what they know is a sin.
