Waste management in Abuja: The missing links

Factors cited for its establishment included the need to have a centrally located capital city that would enhance the unity of Nigerians, while exhibiting the aesthetic qualities of a modern capital city. Environmentalists were particularly happy during Abuja’s conceptual stage that the new capital would take due cognizance of modern town-planning issues such as waste […]

Factors cited for its establishment included the need to have a centrally located capital city that would enhance the unity of Nigerians, while exhibiting the aesthetic qualities of a modern capital city.

Environmentalists were particularly happy during Abuja’s conceptual stage that the new capital would take due cognizance of modern town-planning issues such as waste management which, they noted, had become a major environmental concern in Lagos, the then capital.

Such arguments were quite understandable, as Lagos had been having serious waste management problems, as refuse heaps littered its streets. The relocation of the country’s seat of government to Abuja was, therefore, widely assessed as a welcome development.

In spite of the people’s expectations, observers note that Abuja, like other cities in the country, still grapples with waste management problems; as some areas, particularly the satellite towns, stink because of the refuse heaps on the streets and walkways.

The mounting garbage heaps in the satellite towns, according to Mr Kenneth Duniyan, a specialist in environmental and public health engineering, can cause serious degradation of the environment, resulting in a myriad of health hazards as well.

Water sources near such waste dumps easily become contaminated and a consequence, explains Dr Ibrahim Idris, an expert in community health, is the spread of gastro-intestinal and parasitic diseases.

“This can be serious as the diseases can be epidemic,’’ he says.

However, this is not to suggest that the FCT Administration (FCTA) has been indifferent. Huge sums of money is annually spent on efforts to keep Abuja clean and the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) oversees waste management operations in the city.

The Director of the AEPB, Dr Abubakar Yabo, says that the agency is responsible for the evacuation and disposal of solid and liquid wastes in the city.

In the area of solid waste management, Yabo says that the AEPB has entered into a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement with some contractors.

“Abuja is divided into 20 district lots, each district lot being manned by a cleaning contractor on a concession agreement for three years,’’ he says.

Yabo says that the AEPB, the Abuja Investment Company and an Ukrainian firm, have entered into a joint-venture agreement for waste management activities in Abuja.

Under the agreement, he says, the AEPB contributed 20 per cent of the funds used in procuring 50 compacting trucks and 12 street sweepers, while the Ukrainian technical partners contributed the remaining 80 per cent.

“That is why you can see a lot of brand new equipment around,’’ Yabo says, adding: “The vehicles have been shared out to the cleaning contractors in charge of the 20 lots and the size of each district determines the number of vehicles allocated to each cleaner.

“For Maitama District, it may require up to eight compacting trucks; for Wuse, it may require up to eight trucks, while Wuye will get less than three compacting trucks as the district has not been fully developed,’’ he adds.

The AEPB chief says that the compacting trucks are given out to the cleaning contractors on a lease agreement, adding that they pay hiring fees for the equipment, expected to be in use for the next six years.

Yabo says that the Ukrainian company undertakes the maintenance of the compacting vehicles, stressing: “Whenever a contractor is having problems with the compacting truck in his custody, he just has to return it to the company which will give him a new one, while the faulty one is fixed.

“The good thing about the whole arrangement is that after six years, the AEPB will take full possession of the trucks,’’ he adds.

On liquid waste collection, Yabo says that water from kitchens, toilets and bathrooms of houses in Abuja pass through the sewage system and get to the Wupa waste treatment plant, about 35km from the city centre. He explains that the liquid waste is usually filtered in its course via the gravitational process.

“By the time the water gets to Wupa, it is already fully treated to acceptable standards before being discharged into the stream body,’’ Yabo says.

In spite of Yabo’s explanations about Abuja’s waste management procedures, observers bemoan the apparent lack of a pragmatic waste management system in Abuja, in spite of its status as a new, emerging cosmopolitan city.

They argue that an up-to-date waste management system ought to have been integrated into the Abuja Master Plan.

Yabo disagrees with such viewpoints, saying that the FCT has a very good waste management system in place.

He recalls that in 2004, for instance, the city’s waste-collection system was somewhat perfect, conceding that the system became defective because of the declining quality of the waste managers’ service delivery.

“Now, things have started picking up; the situation has changed. The city is getting cleaner day-by-day,’’ he says.

“If we don’t have a good waste management system in place, there is no way that Abuja can remain clean with the daily influx of people into the city,’’ he adds.

The AEPB plans to enhance the service delivery of its contractors by making them more accountable to the people.

Yabo says that a spot will be designated in every district where information on the cleaning contractors, their supervisors, the monitoring team and AEPB’s service number will be displayed.

“Residents of a district can just look at the signboard and get information about the district’s cleaning contractor; his name, his phone number, his supervisor and the AEPB’s service number, in case of any complaints,’’ he says.

As regards waste disposal in the FCT, the AEPB currently has two landfill sites — one in Ghosa, along the Airport road, and the other in Ajata on the Nyanya-Karu road.  

Yabo says that the landfill site at Mpape and another at Karu have been closed because they are filled up.

However, he says that there are plans to build about six waste transfer stations to shorten distances and ease waste-collection activities, adding that the stations will be built within Abuja and on the city’s outskirts.  

(NAN)