The Enugu State government has ordered the closure of an unauthorised sewage dump site at Ugwuaji, in Enugu South Local Government Area of the State.
The order was contained in a statement signed by the State Commissioner for Environment and Mineral Resources, Prince Emeka Mamah, yesterday. This followed a video clip trending in the social media on the sewage dump site at Ugwuaji, in Enugu South Local Government Area of Enugu State, which was described by the presenter as “a site the tanker drivers said was designated to them by the state government.
Mamah, in the statement, said he personally led a team from his ministry on an unscheduled visit to the site and discovered that the sewage site in the said video was not the property of the Enugu State government, neither was it designated to the tanker drivers by the state government as was erroneously alleged.
“The tanker drivers we met on ground disposing sewage disclosed that the people of Ugwuaji community gave them the site to be dumping sewage on commercial purposes.
“The Ugwuaji community, through the Vice Chairman of the committee in charge of the site, Mr. Chukwudi Edeh, also confirmed that they allocated the area to the tanker drivers for disposal of sewage on commercial basis,” the commissioner said.
He said both the tanker drivers and the community frowned at the false impression created by the makers of the video that the dump site was connected to a river, and stressed that there is no such river around the vicinity. He added that the area is still virgin, as people do not reside anywhere close to it.
“From the representations made by the tanker drivers and Ugwuaji community, it is clearly established that the activities of both parties at the said site were unauthorised by any agency of the government, but a mutual agreement between them.
“Consequently, we ordered the closure of the sewage dump site with immediate effect and requested the affected persons to channel their sewage to the government approved sewage site at the Enugu State Waste Management Authority (ESWAMA) dump site, Enugu.”