Calabar, Nigeria’s cleanest city, now littered with refuse

A section of the city littered with dirts.

Calabar, the Cross River State Capital has, over the years, maintained the status as cleanest, greenest and most serene city in the country. This status, however, made the city a preferred destination for business and leisure. In fact, this status attracts thousands of tourists to the city.

But unfortunately today, the city has cut another image for itself. It has lost its status as the cleanest and greenest city in the country. This is because heaps of refuse have returned to the streets and roads in the city. In fact, mountains of refuse now dot the nooks and crannies of the city.

In Calabar municipality for instance, refuse are littered in major streets and roads as the refuse bins procured by the state government for refuse collection and evacuation are full to the brim thereby disrupting human movements and free flow of traffic. Besides, the offensive order oozing out from the refuse threaten may cause serious health hazards.

Calabar South is, however, the worst hit. Streets like Goldie, Ekpo Abasi, White House, Palm Street, Mayne Avenue, among others are fast becoming an eyesore. At the Watt market axis, still in Calabar South, some traders display their wares on top of refuse heaps, a situation which had resulted in low patronage.

Some traders at Watt Market told the Nigerian Tribune that they had visited the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital and General Hospitals due to the health challenges posed by the  inhalation of the bad odour from the refuse.

Edidiong Ekpo , a plantain seller  called on the state government to, as a matter of urgency, evacuate refuse from the market and its environs, which according to him, might lead to outbreak of an epidemic.

Ekpo said, ‘’ It is a terrible situation because we are inhaling the bad odour from the refuse every day and government has refused to evacuate the refuse despite the fact that they collect levies from us.

‘’It is harmful to our health and I am calling on relevant authorities to come and evacuate this refuse which has been here for many weeks. How can we cope in such an environment, it is affecting our business because most people don’t want to patronise us because of where we are sitting to sell’’

At the office of the Calabar Urban Development Authority, CUDA, the agency saddled with the responsibility of evacuating refuse and sweeping of streets, an official of the agency who did not want his name in print told the Nigerian Tribune that most of the trucks used for evacuation had broken down, adding that they were currently constrained by lack of funds to buy new trucks or repair the existing ones.

Commenting on the development, Member representing Calabar Municipality in the State House of Assembly, Mr. Efa Esua, said evacuation of refuse falls under the purview of local governments adding, ‘’You know refuse requires a lot of money to evacuate and the intention was for that project to be handled jointly by the state and local governments.

‘’Where you find these heaps of refuse are where the local government is collecting revenue from- go to Watt market- is the state government collecting any money from Watt market? No, it is the local government that collects.

‘’Come to Ika Ika qua in Calabar municipality the same thing- revenue is being handled by them; they are the people collecting the money. What they do is to sweep the market and dump the refuse outside the place and then you go to blame the state government when they are the people enjoying the money.

‘’Should the governor now say I want to appoint consultants to go round and collect the refuse there will be another round of outcry. They will say the governor has taken over local government functions. But I am sure the refuse will be cleared- you know the act of clearing is not as fast as generating refuse, he concluded.’’

Source Tribune.