AS a  child growing up in the commercial city of Aba, Abia state in the early eighties, I knew the city had a lot of environmental challenges that appeared insurmountable at a time, despite several efforts by successive governments in the state to tackle them.

It was obvious, however, to the residents then that governments were not committed and sincere in tackling the problems.

Top on the list of the environmental challenges in the city then were flooding and refuse disposal. Both of them posed serious threat to our health and environmental wellbeing even as we no choice but to endure the hazard. Apart from the indiscriminate dumping of refuse at almost every corner, the odour oozing out from it was enough to make one sick all the time.

As more people trooped into the city for commercial activities and other means of eking out a living, the more the challenges took a dangerous dimension, as there were no places for refuse disposal.

So most times residents dump their refuse into the drainage, especially at night, believing it would be washed away by flood when it rained. Some streets and roads were taken over by heaps of refuse and people avoided using such roads and streets for fear of being infected.

It was a situation that worsened the environmental challenges in the city as most drainage channels were totally blocked, making it possible for flood to take over majority of the roads in the city whenever it rained.

I could remember how our parents would always prevent us from going out whenever it was raining to avoid being carried away by flood or being infected in the contaminated flood.

That was my experience and that of my people in the city then. By the time I finished my secondary education in the early nineties I left the city for further education in Enugu, though I visited there occasionally to buy clothes while I was in the university because of the presence of  good tailors there.

With the return of democracy in 1999, I had thought that the city and state capital, Umuahia, would receive adequate attention from the state government, especially in tackling the environmental challenges.

But disappointedly I didn’t witness such intervention from the government when I visited the city again in 2005 while doing my national youth service programme in Cross River State. One of my friends there told me that the government had continued to promise the residents of plans to clear the heaps of refuse at various dump sites that had become an eye sore, but nothing was ever done.

So it was a hopeless situation in Aba and for years I didn’t go there again until recently when I was in Umuahia for some days on official duty. Every morning from my hotel room window, I saw some waste disposal trucks with the inscription of the Abia State Environment Protection Agency, ASEPA, carrying waste and some street sweepers sweeping the roads and watering the flowers planted on the dualised roads in the capital. On inquiry how such development was made possible and whether such has been extended to the commercial city of Aba, I was informed that the present government in the state made it possible with the revival of ASEPA and equipping the agency with the necessary facilities, including more than 28 waste disposal trucks, Eco poer truck, tippers, receptacles, bulldozers, graders, domestic waste bins, weight waste containers, motor vehicle waste basket, bio-degradable waste bag and others.

This was after the state government terminated the arrangement it entered into with Phoenix Environmental Service Limited for failure to live up to expectation in managing refuse in Aba. The government later entered into agreement with ANCOLD Environmental to work  in partnership with ASEPA to ensure the clearing of waste disposal in Aba.

Based on the popular adage which says that “seeing is believing”, I made out time and visited Aba to see things myself and also see some of my friends after some years. On getting to the city, right from the popular and notorious Osisioma Junction, it was obvious that there was a massive improvement in the tackling of environmental challenges in the city. Flowers have been planted at junctions with a beautification design and demarcation I found very attractive. There was no traffic jams or congestion at the junction right down to the Aba/Owerri road. Most of the known refuse dump sites in the city were empty, with disposal trucks on every street packing waste. Most of the drainage channels were cleared and clean. I could not believe that it was the same filthy city I left few years ago.

I learnt also that ASEPA introduced a unique waste sorting device known as medical waste management devise, a very special environmental management approach designed for sorting out medical-related waste for effective disposal. My friends told me that residents who infringe on environmental laws are charged to mobile courts established by the state government.

This, I was told, has made the residents of the city, especially traders, to change their attitude towards managing refuse to avoid incurring the wrath of the law. So in Aba and Umuahia today, the fear of ASEPA is the beginning of wisdom for the residents, especially those who are not ready to obey the environmental laws of keeping their environments clean all the times.

The state government’s spirited effort in managing waste in the state now, especially in Aba and Umuahia, is commendable and the residents should complement them by adhering strictly to the rules of the game in disposing their refuse because it is no longer business as usual.

*Mr. ANDREW UDODIRI, a social critic, wrote from Lagos.