The task of cleaning Karu

How many tonnes of refuse are generated, daily, in Karu?Well, over 300 tonnes, that is what we generate and equally evacuate. We make sure we don’t leave any waste uncollected. What is responsible for the improved collection?The improvement is largely attributed to the focus and attention given to the issue of waste management by Governor […]

How many tonnes of refuse are generated, daily, in Karu?
Well, over 300 tonnes, that is what we generate and equally evacuate. We make sure we don’t leave any waste uncollected.

What is responsible for the improved collection?
The improvement is largely attributed to the focus and attention given to the issue of waste management by Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura who, personally, doesn’t want to see any heap of refuse unattended to.  For that reason, we have to do something in that respect, coupled with the fact that the state has made available, more equipment and more fund, you can see that we have acquired more waste bins and equally gotten some positional compactor. All these things, put together, translated into the improvement you have noticed.   

Is what you collect from Karu the highest in the state?
Absolutely it is.  There is nowhere else we collect such volume of waste. The average collection of waste in Karu triples all the waste we collect in the entire state.

What are the major challenges in ridding the area of refuse?
The challenges we have is that of human attitude and the issue of traders that hang around the highway’s corridors. Considerably, we are able to push them back. Unfortunately, they come back after closing hours and when you come back in the morning, you find lots of dirt. Also, because of the fact that most of the streets here are inaccessible, if you want to move in with a vehicle to evacuate waste, you cannot pass through so we rely on secondary source of disposal whereby people bring their waste to a particular point for collection. People, also, don’t pay for the waste collection. So, it is a challenge because government has been spending, it is like a social welfare service. It is a challenge in a way because it drains our resources but the painful aspect of it is the human attitude. People go as far as dumping waste in the middle of the road but that has been curtailed to some extent.

What are you doing to address the human attitude?
If you observe well you will appreciate the fact there is a level of sanity and we owe it largely to the amount of sensitisation we did. We will continue to enlighten the public on the need to stop dumping waste in unauthorised locations.  Residents have this habit of dumping waste on the ground.  So, we will appeal to them and sooner or later we will partner with the mass media to mount a very serious campaign

Are you planning to make people pay for packing their refuse?
We are working on that. The Nasarawa Geographic Information System is now in place, we are now capturing all the houses within Karu. By the time we capture all these houses, we want to determine the accessibility of these houses and apply the charges in terms of different uses. So, sooner or later, we will commercialise our operation and probably partner with the private sector, we will advertise for this operation to be carried out

Any plan for recycling?
For now, the state has no recycling facilities but some individuals have approached us and they want to go into partnership with us. But we are processing these applications, we want them to come as quick as possible. We are appealing to those interested in recycling of waste to come forward. We are ready to collaborate with them.

What are you doing about destitute on the streets?
It is worrisome. The government is doing something about it. Kano has recently banned street begging, most parts of the north have stopped begging and for the fact that the state government has not passed such law, people are now finding refuge here. Obviously, we will not take a situation where we will be a dumping ground because they cannot go to FCT, we don’t want them to think the law here is weak, and it is not weak. The state government will come out with strong law, begging is not allowed, they can easily find an alternative means of economic engagement rather coming to beg.