Residents of N022 Jesus Avenue, around the NTA New Layout in Rivers State have raised alarm over the indiscriminate discharge of fecal matter in the area.
The owner of the property, Mrs. Stella Adiele traced the discharge to two sewage pipes channeled from one of the houses in the area to the road; discharging the fecal waste to the drain.
She told TreasureFm she had reported the menace to the government which attracted a warning and ultimatum of December 2024 to owner and occupants of the property but that the discharge continued after some days.
Adiele said” last year, we noticed that our neighbour, they channelled their sewage pipe to the gutter. Before I noticed, there was a night I noticed that in my whole compound we could not sleep. We then traced it and found that they buried pipe right from their house to the gutter, emptying fecal waste in the drain. Their opposite neighbour did the same thing, connected their socket way to to gutter. A brother of mine came, saw it and reported them to the State sanitation authority, they came here, arrested them. They called their landlord snd they gave them till December 2024 to fix the menace but till today, they are still discharging the fecal waste in the drainage along the street.”
She laments, “We can’t sleep, we can’t open our window. Everywhere is stinking, we can’t breath, government should come to our aid please.”
Two people Mr. Christopher Schedrack and Mrs. Success Ogwuwuike who reside and do business in the area, lamented that though they took the responsibility of cleaning up the gutter because of their business, the odour has remained unbearable and sickening.
Ogwuwuike said ” The smell is too much, its something I cannot condole. Government should come and help us., let them do something about it. The smell affects my business. And even customers complain about the smell.”
” Shedrack said, ” Ever since I relocated to this place, I’ve been passing through this menace and the kind of odour that ouzes of this gutter is very offensive and its really affecting my customers. So I tried to find out where the odour is coming from, then I discovered there is a pipe channelled to the gutter. And whener my customers come, they complain.
Even inside here, if not that I’m making use of fan, the odour just fill here and it’s very offensive. On daily basis, like today I cleaned it. Just give it like 2,3 days interval, that greenish stuff will form up again. Whatsoever that should be done, let them find proper solution than to channel it into business premises.”
The residents are calling on the Rivers State Ministry of Environment and the State’s Waste Management Agency RIWAMA; to come to their rescue to avoid disease outbreak.
