Waste To Power Project: RIWAMA Sole Administrator, Bro Obuah Assures Ministry Of Energy Of Support
The Sole Administrator, Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA), Bro Felix Obuah has assured the State Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of all necessary support and assistance in its proposed ‘waste to power project’.
Bro Obuah gave the assurance while hosting the team from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources led by the Commissioner, Dr. Peter Medee, Wednesday, September 30, 2020.
The Sole Administrator noted that the Agency has made frantic efforts to restore the Garden City status of Port Harcourt, the State Capital since 2015 when the present management of RIWAMA was inaugurated under his headship.
He emphasized the hindsight of the State Governor, Chief Barr. Nyesom Wike who has demonstrated more than any other leader before him that he is environment friendly and very desirous to see Rivers State as the cleanest among her peers in Nigeria.
According to the Sole Administrator, on assumption of office in June, 2015, the State was more or less a garbage dump as Service Providers abandoned their duty posts, due to the refusal of the Amaechi administration to pay them for about six months.
To change the environmental narratives that have presently placed the state ahead of other states in sanitary health, Bro Obuah noted, Governor Wike paid off all the arrears owed Service Providers by the Amaechi administration.
Still on policies and strategies that are responsible for the glaring turnaround of the environmental situation of the state, the Sole Administrator, Bro Felix Obuah said unlike what obtained before he came on board, RIWAMA has not been collecting any form of revenue from residents and companies in the state and has wholly relied on the prudent use of the money allocated to the Agency monthly from the state government.
“It’s also worthy of mention that on assumption of office, we inherited only one functional dumpsite from the previous administration situated at Rumuolumeni close to Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, which was later abandoned following complaints and pressure from the university authorities about the disturbing effects of the dumpsite close to them.
Challenged by this, we upped our game and today, we have been able to establish three other functional dumpsites in the State.
For efficiency and easy monitoring of waste evacuation by our Service Providers, we divided Port Harcourt into zones among these Service Providers and RIWAMA remains on record as the first in the country to develop an APP for monitoring of wastes,” Bro Obuah declared.
On the proposed waste to power project, Bro Felix Obuah said it was a nice idea but was quick to point out that this was not the first time such proposal was being presented to the Agency. He said some in the past, had claimed to be experts in the field and used that as a ploy to secure Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) and property from the State Government, and later abandoned the project without recourse to the State Government.
Bro Obuah hoped this would be an exception and promised to lend his support and weight to see that it was a success.
Earlier, while speaking, the State Commissioner for Energy and Natural Resources, Dr. Peter Medee who led the delegation said the whole idea was on ‘recycling wastes generated in the State into energy resource’, which in turn will create wealth and employment for Rivers people.
Describing the innovation as Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike’s signature programme, the Energy Commissioner said the facilitating team will arrive in the State next month from the United Kingdom to understudy the process of waste collection in the State to help deliver a cleaner Rivers State.
