Community leaders were commended for organising communal cleaning exercises (Aikin Gayya) in Yakubu Wanka, Nasarawa Jahun and Unguwar Nyan-Nya-mawa communities in Bauchi LGA.
The community exercise was to support the new model of sanitation exercise introduced by the Bauchi State Environmental Protection Agency (BASEPA)
The commendation was made on Saturday by the Commissioner of Housing and Environment, Rt Hon. Danlami Ahmed Kawule while inspecting the exercise organised by the community leaders during the month of April sanitation exercise.
The community members engaged in the clearing of streets, nooks and crannies of the communities in addition to cleaning and desilting of drainages.
The exercise included the planting of trees as 100 tree seedlings were distributed to the people of Yakubu Wanka community while the commissioner together with the Director General, BASEPA, Dr Mahmud Bose planted some of the trees.
The Director General highlighted that the communal cleaning exercise (Aikin Gayya) was designed and reintroduced in the state to inculcate the spirit of cleanliness to the general public by ensuring personal hygiene and promoting public health.
He added that the initiative also involves tree planting activities to encourage afforestation activities with the view to fight environmental challenges.
Bose added that not only communities but also government institutions and public places such as schools, hospitals, markets, complexes, plazas and motor parks will also be engaged in all the urban centres of the state
The Director General also appreciated the turnout of people in the exercise, saying that it is so encouraging, calling on other institutions, marketplaces and communities to support the agency in discharging its duties to sanitise the state and promote environmental health behaviours.
He then pledged to provide working tools and machinery for the desilting of drainages and prompt evacuation of the wastes in the state.
The agency also during the exercise, identified some defaulters who refused to comply with the sanitation exercise guidelines and will be prosecuted by the Agency’s Environmental Mobile Court.
In his remarks, the Commissioner of Housing and Environment, Right Hon. Danlami Ahmed Kawule was overwhelmed with the level of turnout and compliance by the good people of Bauchi State and called for communities, institutions and markets in the state to do the same or even better in terms of organising themselves to clean and evacuate the waste in their respective markets and communities and plant more trees as well as taking the ownership by nurturing it to the maturity level.
While appreciating the agency’s efforts, the community leaders of Yakubu Wanka, Unguwar Gyan-gya-mawa, expressed their delightfulness for considering their communities among the piloting areas and assured the Director General their continued support, not only in sanitation exercise but also in every activity that will improve and promote public health and sustainable development in their communities.
The highlights of the exercise were the cleaning of streets and pedestrians, the market premises, the desilting of drainages, the evacuation of waste, and the distribution and planting of trees in the Yakubu Wanka Community.
The agency assured that it will not relent in seeing that Bauchi metropolis becomes one of the cleanest state capitals in the country,
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