Delta partners with World Bank on youth empowerment

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State said his administration would ensure that the State Employment and Expenditure for Result, a World Bank project, was used to empower youths and promote sanitation.
Uduaghan made this known to newsmen after inspecting some of the projects handled by the state Ministry of the Environment in Ibusa and Asaba on Sunday.
He said that SEEFOR would offer the state the opportunity to engage the youth to improve sanitation in the state.
“SEEFOR is an empowerment programme and one of the areas we want to focus on in empowering our youths is on environmental management,” he said.
Uduaghan explained that the state government had started a waste management programme aimed at having a cleaner state, adding that Asaba, Warri and Effurun would be the starting points.
He expressed displeasure at the untidy state of some newly constructed roads within the capital and directed the ministry to rid Asaba of dirt within one week.
The governor said arrangement had reached an advanced stage to bring in incinerators, which would be used to covert waste to wealth.
“That will help solve the challenge of the disposal points for waste in the state capital,” he said.
According to him, as soon as the incinerators are installed, the existing waste dump site on the Benin-Onitsha Expressway and Asaba would be closed down.
“The existing dump site is not good enough and it is close to the Asaba Airport and the smoke emanating from it may cause obstruction to flight coming to the airport,” he said.
Uduaghan further said that the state government would enact sanitation laws and institute environmental marshals to educate people and enforce the law.
He, therefore, cautioned those selling on the pedestrian walkways to desist as government was now prepared to arrest and prosecute offenders.
The Commissioner for the Environment, Chief Frank Omare, said that the incinerator to treat waste generated in Asaba and its environs would become operational in three weeks.
According to Omare, all the components for the completion of the plant are already on ground.
He said: “The plant will become operational in three weeks and all wastes from the metropolis will be directed to the new site to be converted to recycled materials like plastic, iron or fertilisers for sale.
“Through this, the state can generate some revenue from waste as internally generated revenue.”
The governor inspected Anwai Road, Nnebuisi Road, Dennis Osadebe Way, the waste dump site at the expressway in Asaba and the waste to wealth plant in Ibusa.