Environment: Kaduna govt begins construction of 3 refuse sites, 10 transfer stations – Gobroadsheet
//Kaduna/#/Environment//
FOLLOWING indiscriminate dumping of refuse by people resident in Kaduna and it’s environs, the State Government said it has approved the construction of three new standard refuse dumping sites (one in each of its three senatorial districts) and ten transfer stations at the cost of about N675 million to take care of ever increasing tons of waste generated daily in the state.
Commissioner in the Ministry of Environment, Shehu Balarabe Giwa, told Gobroadsheet in his office that the projects, despite dwindling economy became necessary to safe the State from flood that may result from indiscriminate waste disposal by the people resident in the State.
According to the Commissioner, the development is in addition to ongoing construction of covets, drains and canals, all geared towards making the environment safer and less expensive to manage in the long run.
According to him, “in the last executive Council meeting in Kaduna, the state government graciously approved the construction of new 10 transfer stations in order to improve the collection of waste in the State. This is another sustainable development programme.
“Six transfer stations will be constructed within Kaduna, three in Zaria and one in Kafanchan. At the same time, the State government, under Governor El-Rufai, has also approved the construction of three new dump sites one in each of the three senatorial districts of the state at the cost of N480, million (N160m per site).
“The ten transfer stations at the cost of N195million (N19.5m each). We have signed agreement with successful contractors after going through the process for some time.
We are responsible government. The governor has done it before when he was the Minister of FCT and we can only expect him to do more here in the State. We are conscious of some important factors while delivering the project which include the quality of the projects, timeline, benefits to our people and all that and those were part of the agreement we signed with contractors. This government placed high premium on timeliness. That is, whatever we are doing is time bound. So, the contractors have 12 weeks to complete the projects.
“It is important to add that before now, we don’t have single standard transfer station in any part of the state. So when completed, the good people of the state will benefit immensely from it because apart from taking care of their waste, control flood, it will also add to employment strength of the state government. The governor has special interest in environment and that is why you see him implementing policies that are geared towards making Kaduna environment safer through the relevant agencies under the state government”, he explained.