Clean Up Nigeria (CUN), an NGO has warned Nigerians against indiscriminate dumping of refuse and advised them to embrace strong personal hygiene and good sanitation habits for a healthy environment.
Mr Ene Owoh, National Coordinator/Secretary of the organisation said this on Thursday while delivery the State of the Nigeria Environment Report, 2021, in Abuja.
Owoh, who announced the report said that Akwa Ibom State emerged first in the 2021 report with 64 per cent, while Ebonyi state came second with 55 per cent, and Bauchi, third with 44 per cent.
He added that Abuja, emerged the cleanest city in Nigeria for the year 2021 with 79 per cent, followed by Uyo with 63 percent, while Borno State finished last.
He however, congratulated the Akwa Ibom people and its government for emerging in the first position, adding that the state has been taking the first position for three successive years, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
According to him, Nigerians, among other things, should embrace strong personal hygiene and good sanitation habits and dispose of their waste matter at the right places.
“We are encouraged by government at all levels and the populace in the sense that after the initial three cleanliness index ratings studies we carried out in 2018, 2019 and 2020, there has been noticeable improvement.
“The improvement is mainly in hygiene and sanitation practices across the states which have grown by three percent in 2021.
“We encourage all stakeholders to engage in peer review mechanism by making out time to visit both the leading states and cities, and the backward states and cities.
“This will help the stakeholders to benefit and gain more insight into what the top states are doing in order to improve their performance ratings.
“Government at all levels and communities, including individuals, should, as a matter of urgency, take seriously the aspect of knowledge, attitude and practice of hygiene and sanitation.
“The effort will help to improve their living conditions in order to increase the average life expectancy in Nigeria which at present is 45 years.
“This is in line with the project’s goal which is founded on bringing sanitation and waste management to the front burner of both government and the populace, and in the process increase awareness.
“Our intention is also to encourage alternative actions on personal hygiene and sanitation in order to ensure a cleaner, healthier and safer Nigeria,’’ he said.
Owoh said that CUN was a frontline international NGO with social and economic consultative status with the United Nation since 1994.
He said that the cleanliness performance index rating of all states and towns of the federation was carried out for a full calendar year December 2020 to November, 2021.
“In order to sustain the project landmarks credibility ratings, we further secured the overwhelming support from our project partners to deploy the full application of the world’s highest satellite imagery system (the GEO-EYE-1),
“The GEO-EYE-1, collects spectral images (data) at 0.14 meters or 16 inches from the orbit quarterly year-round as monitored from Canada to give us accurate and reliable data base, using the five variables.
“The method is with combined Physical Verification 20 percent and satellite imagery data 80 percent, and these were applied in all the Performance Indicators on a monthly basis every quarter of the year”.
The national coordinator said that only four states in the country namely Lagos, Oyo, Abuja and Bauchi have sanitary landfills, while the remaining 34 States operate open dumping.
He said that the development was not only alarming but needed urgent intervention in addressing the menace.
Mr Obong Ikim, Chairman, Akwa-Ibom State Environmental Protection and Waste Management Agency, who received the award from the NGO, said, on behalf of his government, the state appreciated the effort made by the organisation.
“I want to thank CUN for taking the pains of going round the country to come up with the report on the state of the environment, which sincerely, could not have been an easy task.
“For one state to take first position in 2019, 2020 and 2021, clearly shows it is doing something right.
“However, there is a need for more work on our environment so I urge all the stakeholders to join hands in keeping our environment clean and safe” he said.
He dedicated the awards to the cleaners and other staff who he described as the unsung heroes.
