NAN-AE-7
Waste
By Vivian Emoni
Abuja, Nov. 28, 2017 (NAN) Mr Williams Osaze, President, Society for the Promotion of People’s Rights, an NGO, on Tuesday urged Nigerians to engage in waste management schemes to generate revenue and create more job opportunities.
Osaze gave the advice in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said that waste could be converted to wealth, adding that the activity would, therefore, generate revenue and job opportunities for people across the country.
He said that such efforts would improve the economy and engender development, while promoting sanitation in the country.
Osaze underscored the need for establishing and strengthening waste recycling plants across the country
He also said that health officers should be deployed to different neighbourhoods so as to expand the sanitation coverage of the country.
“Health officers are required everywhere across the country; the officers can initiate plans on how they can coordinate with cleaning contractors to improve the collection of waste from house to house, even in public places.
“When the contractors collect the waste, they will take it to refuse centres where the waste can be recycled into useful products.
“In doing that, there will be better results from the waste management activity; the process will create job opportunities in waste collection, jobs in refuse centres and jobs in waste recycling.
“Also, jobs in waste composting, jobs in designing better products, jobs in producing high-quality products with recycled materials would be created.
“All of these are jobs that cannot be delocalised; you can see that Nigerians are destroying wealth by just dumping waste in landfills.
“Let us not forget the fact that recycling can make a big contribution to our development and recycled materials are even cheaper than the original ones.
“From my calculations, proper waste management can generate employment for millions of people, especially now that we are talking about unemployment and hardship.
“The people will generate income through waste management procedures,’’ he said.
Osaze however, urged all stakeholders to collaborate with the government in efforts to promote and sustain a healthy environment.
He particularly advised the public to imbibe the habit of keeping their surroundings clean at all times. (NAN)
VOE/MUYI/OOK
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Edited by Muhyideen Jimoh and Dayo Komolafe