Kaduna plans to introduce sanitation fees

A source at the State Ministry of Environment who pleaded anonymity yesterday told our reporter that presently, sanitation exercise is 100% funded by the state government and that with time, government may no longer be able to continue funding the exercise.“So, there is an intention to introduce the fee and if there is positive response […]

A source at the State Ministry of Environment who pleaded anonymity yesterday told our reporter that presently, sanitation exercise is 100% funded by the state government and that with time, government may no longer be able to continue funding the exercise.
“So, there is an intention to introduce the fee and if there is positive response from the public, government fund can be used to extend sanitation exercise to other parts of the state where they do not exist before. The refuse collection project has been expanded to other local government areas of the state. We are now covering Zaria, Sabon Gari, Jema’a, Kagarko, Kachia and Kaura. If we have enough fund by the end of this year, we also have the intention to extend the project to Lere and Birnin Gwari,” he said.
On how to execute the plan of charging sanitation fee, he said presently they have commenced house listing in the state including business areas. “When that is concluded, we will now determine the areas that will be charged for now because it is going to be a gradual process. We are going to start with commercial areas, if we see the success we will extend it to Government Reserve Areas (GRA), if we see the success there, we will extend it to the low cost areas and new layouts that are not densely populated and with time based on the success achieved, we will then move to the densely populated areas. It is just like asking each house to pay N500 per month and if there are five tenants in a particular building, the five of them will divide the N500 among themselves and then they will collectively pay into an account,”
“So, we are trying to see how much we can realize per month and how much we can spend per month, so that the government can know where to come in,” he explained.
According to him, the state does not have adequate number of receptacles for refuse collection; noting that if there are adequate number of containers stationed almost close to every house, with sensitization and some element of enforcement; the environment will be neater.
He also mentioned that arrangements are ongoing to establish mobile courts not only to punish offenders but move from place to place especially areas where there are issues of clearing of drainages and gutters; the mobile court will charge the residents of the area.