Governor Nyesom Wike has declared a state of emergency on environmental sanitation in Rivers state.
The governor made the declaration shortly after he was sworn in for the second term as the governor of Rivers state, by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Adama Lamikanra.
He admitted that his administration has performed below expectations in the area of environmental sanitation in the last four years.
He, however, promised that the new approach would be adopted to address the issue of environmental sanitation to achieve the desired result.
” We admit that our performance in the last four years with respect to sanitation may have been below expectation, and again we apologise for your service in this regard. But let me assure you that we are determined to make Rivers state the cleanest and healthiest state to live and do business in Nigeria. As since we can not continue to do something the same way and expect different result, we have also decided to change our approach to environmental health and sanitation from now in other to get the desired result. So we have declared a state of emergency on sanitation in Rivers state from today under which we will hold everyone strictly accountable to the cleanliness and healthiness of his or her premises and proximate environment “, he stated.
Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital,was popularly called the Garden City of Nigeria because of its clean and siren environment, beautified by flowers along the streets. Between 1980 and 1999, Port Harcourt was also rated the cleanest city in the country as a result of its beautiful landscape, good road layout and the environment consciousness on its residents.
