The Anambra State Government has warned residents of the state to desist from the culture of channeling untreated wastewater through the public drains due to obvious health risks it causes to both human and environment.

 

The Managing Director, Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra, OCHA Brigade, Comrade Celestine Anere gave the warning while speaking to journalists on the increasing rate of waste water being channeled into the streets and major roads in the state.

 

He urged residents to desist from such ugly attitudes in their own interests and in the interest of the environment, while educating residents on the danger of mismanagement of wastewater and sustainable environment.

 

Comrade Anere stated that public drains are meant for stormwater as against the unhealthy practice of channeling untreated wastewater which will have adverse impact on the environment and humans.

 

The OCHA brigade boss explained that Anambra residents have continued to lament over the channeling of human wastes on streets and roads in the state, saying that the agency will soon start apprehending defaulters.

 

Some of the residents who spoke to the ABS in Awka, Mr. Ugochukwu Odogwu and a petty trader, Mrs. Chinyere Nwogbo decried the amount of sewage waste directly channeled into the streets indiscriminately, while a barber, Mr. Cletus Jaja expressed worry over the way residents release their wastewater to the streets.

 

A hair dresser in Amawbia, Ifeoma Ogbonna, told journalists that the situation is often unbearable with the entire atmosphere filled with odour, coupled with leakages from waste carts that pollute the air.