By Ene Abu
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Muhammad Bello has called on all stakeholders in the FCT to join hands together to keep the territory clean.
Bello made the call at the commemoration of the 2019 World Habitat Day by the FCT Administration, with the theme “Frontier Technologies as Innovative Tools to Transform Waste to Wealth”.
The minister who stressed that the task of environmental sanitation and protection should not be left to the government alone, insisted that all stakeholders in the society starting from the traditional ruler to the ward head and the family unit should be involved. The Minister insisted that, “everybody is a stakeholder in the business of keeping Abuja clean”.
He called on traditional rulers and all residents of the FCT to see themselves as waste to wealth ambassadors and embark on the crusade to educate others on the need to desist from actions such as open defecation and indiscriminate dumbing of refuse.
Bello who said that the hosting of the event by the FCTA was part of activities towards the domestication of the New Urban Agenda and the building of an all-inclusive City, expressed concern at the alarming level of waste generated globally by cities annually, killing one hundred thousand marine animal each year.
He also described as worrisome the fact that 80 per cent of plastic ever produced is still in the environment and not bio-degraded.
He however said that the FCT Administration has consistently maintained its resolve to bring to reality the “Kuala Lumpur Declaration on cities 2030” and has identified the key areas that need critical intervention, with waste management in the FCT being one of the issues on the front burner.
The key areas are; sanitation in the FCT, slum upgrading and community empowerment, provision of affordable housing, climate change and greening of Abuja as well as transportation and smart city infrastructure.
The minister expressed confidence that discussions at the event will come up with strategies for deploying Frontier Technologies as Innovative tools for transforming waste to wealth in the FCT, thereby boosting the economy of the FCT, creating employment and ensuring a cleaner environment.
In his welcome address, the Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) Gambo Umar Jibrin had said that the deployment of appropriate technologies was not negotiable in transforming the abundant waste materials in the society to other useful purposes and thereby promoting wealth creation.
