Edo’s Dream To Be Cleanest State: Residents Collaboration imperative

 

 By Chris Akhabue, Edo

The ambition of the Edo State Waste Management Board (EWMB) to make Edo the clea nest state in Nigeria is bold, timely and commendable. But while the government can provide the framework, policies, infrastructure, equipment, regulation and enforcement required to drive the initiative, the ultimate success of the campaign will depend largely on the willingness of residents to embrace and sustain the vision.

Without the full cooperation and ownership of the project by the people, the ambition of making Edo the cleanest state risks remaining a worthy aspiration rather than a sustainable reality.

In its determination to achieve this objective, the EWMB has embarked on a series of initiatives designed to transform the state’s environmental landscape. These include strengthening waste collection, maintaining existing dump sites, acquiring modern equipment, installing waste bins at strategic locations and introducing the EWMB Academy as part of a broader public enlightenment campaign.

The Board is therefore seeking to move sanitation beyond occasional clean-up exercises and enforcement operations towards the creation of a permanent culture of environmental responsibility and a committed and sustainable endeavor.

But the success of the government initiatives must also be measured by the extent to which residents, traders, businesses and communities are prepared to support and participate in the aspiration of making Edo an environmentally friendly state.

The critical question now is this : Do residents dispose of their waste properly? Do traders keep their surroundings clean? Do households patronise accredited waste disposal operators? Do businesses respect pedestrian walkways? Do communities take responsibility for the cleanliness of their neighbourhoods?

The answers to these questions will  determine whether Edo’s cleanest-state ambition will be a reality or an exercise in futility. 

Government has a responsibility to provide functional waste collection systems, appropriate infrastructure, effective regulation and public enlightenment. Residents, however, also have a responsibility to use these facilities and systems properly.

No waste management system, regardless of how sophisticated or expensive it may be, can succeed where citizens continue to dump refuse indiscriminately. Government cannot keep every street, drainage channel, road median or vacant space clean if residents continue to treat public spaces as convenient dumping grounds.

This is why the EWMB’s emphasis on public participation is particularly important.

The establishment of the EWMB Academy, with its focus on schools, markets, churches, mosques and other community institutions, recognises that sustainable environmental transformation requires more than enforcement. It requires a fundamental change in attitude.

The goal should not merely be to tell people where to dispose of their waste. The greater objective is to build an environmental culture in which responsible waste disposal becomes a normal part of everyday life and responsible citizenship.

The Board’s Managing Director, Dr. Enehita-Inegbenehi, has acknowledged the scale of the challenge, noting that Edo is not yet where it wants to be, but is certainly not where it used to be.

The installation of nine sets of waste bins at strategic locations around Ring Road, for instance, provides residents and passers-by with designated points for disposing of waste. But such facilities can only achieve their purpose when members of the public use them responsibly and understand that public bins are not substitutes for proper household and commercial waste collection.

The same principle applies to the Board’s appeal to residents to patronise accredited waste disposal agents. When unapproved waste collectors  collect refuse without access to authorised disposal facilities, the problem may simply be transferred from one location to another, with the waste eventually ending up in unauthorised grounds.

Residents therefore have a crucial role to play. They must ask questions, patronise approved waste disposal channels and refuse to support practices that undermine the state’s environmental objectives.

The planned prosecution of offenders and possible confiscation of goods belonging to traders who obstruct public walkways also demonstrate the government’s determination to enforce environmental regulations.

However, enforcement alone cannot create a clean society because  government cannot deploy sanitation officers to monitor every household, street corner, shop, market or business premises every hour of the day. There must eventually be a level of civic consciousness and responsibility where residents comply with environmental regulations because they understand their collective responsibility, not merely because they fear punishment.

This is where the partnership between government and residents becomes indispensable.

The objective of the EWMB is  to create an Edo where environmental cleanliness is no longer viewed simply as a government programme but as a shared civic obligation.

A cleaner Edo will improve the quality of urban life, enhance the appearance of communities, promote public health, attract investment and strengthen the image of the state as a place where people can live, work and do business with confidence.

But these benefits cannot be sustained without residents’ cooperation.

Government cannot employ enough sanitation personnel to stand behind every citizen. It cannot provide a waste bin on every street corner or monitor every trader, household and business premises throughout the day.

Landlords, tenants, traders, students, transport operators, religious organisations, businesses, market associations, traditional institutions, community leaders and youth organisations all have important roles to play.

It is therefore imperative for residents to move beyond mere compliance towards genuine ownership of the clean-Edo project.

Compliance means obeying environmental rules because government demands it. Ownership goes much further. It means residents begin to regard the cleanliness of their streets, markets, drainage channels and neighbourhoods as a personal and collective responsibility.

When communities organise themselves around responsible waste disposal, discourage indiscriminate dumping and hold one another accountable, the pressure on government is significantly reduced.

The EWMB can provide leadership, equipment, education, regulation and enforcement. Government can establish the necessary policies and legal framework.

But the people must provide the daily discipline.

Every piece of waste properly disposed of, every trader who keeps a shopfront clean, every household that engages an accredited waste collector and every resident who refuses to turn a public space into a dumping ground represents a meaningful contribution to the larger vision.

For Edo, therefore, the central question is no longer simply whether the Waste Management Board has the determination to make the state cleaner. The more important question is whether residents are ready to embrace the responsibility that comes with that ambition.

The people of Edo must see the EWMB’s campaign not as another government initiative to be observed from the sidelines, but as a collective project in which everyone has a stake.

The Board deserves the support, cooperation and constructive participation of residents as it pursues this noble objective. Rather than waiting for government to clean every street, citizens should become active partners in keeping their communities clean.

If residents, businesses, community leaders and government work together, the vision of a cleaner, healthier and more orderly Edo can become a sustainable reality.

The choice, belongs to us all.