The Director General (DG) of the Delta State Capital Development Agency, Honourable Onyemaechi Mrakpor, has enjoined journalists in the state to advocate for the need to return to the old practice of community efforts at cleaning up the streets in cities, towns and villages towards the environmental sustainability and aesthetics of the state.
Honourable Mrakpor stated this when the Chairman of the Delta State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Michael Ikeogwu, led some journalists in the state to pay her a courtesy call in her office in Asaba, the state capital.
She recalled that in those good old days youths in the communities would be organised at intervals to clean up the streets and markets of weeds and refuse, adding that such efforts contributed immensely in keeping the environment clean from filth and health hazards.
The DG wondered why such communal efforts have gradually gone into oblivion, adding that journalists should harp on the need to return to the practice in their reportages, just as she decried the noncommittal attitude of some residents during the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in the state.
She maintained that most residents in the state took the period of the clean up exercise as an opportunity for relaxation, while some others engaged themselves in playing football, adding that there was the urgent need to revisit the purpose of the compulsory monthly clean up exercise so as to appraise its impacts in the state.
The DG enjoined residents in the state to shun the unwholesome belief that government alone should arrange for the cleaning up of the cities, towns and villages in the state, adding that while the state government had engaged the services of street sweepers to keep the streets in cities and towns clean of filth, residents should ensure that they clean up their residences and surroundings at all times towards the environmental sustainability of the state.
Earlier, the Chairman, Comrade Ikeogwu, informed her that he decided to lead the delegation of journalists to visit and inform her of the need to partner her office towards the actualisation of the set goals of greater development of the Asaba capital territory.
Ikeogwu noted that there was the need to continue to inform residents in the area and beyond on the need to cooperate with the agency on its onerous task of not only developing, but keeping the territory clean of filth.
The union leader commended the DG for the giant strides taken so far in keeping the state capital free from shanties and filth, promising to ensure a robust reportage of activities of the agencies in the state and beyond. END
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