Stan Okenwa
11 November 2009
The height of environmental and infrastructural failure in Orlu urban seems to have hit an alarming rate as residents are now living under the mercy of epidemics from heaps of refuse left unattended to by the council authority along every street and major road in the metropolis.
The situation is further worsened by erosion caused by flashfloods on streets and urban roads characterised by potholes, non-existing drainage systems and in some cases, deep gullies within the centre of the city.
Our correspondent who toured the metropolis observed that heaps of solid wastes dotting the major streets seem to have been unattended to in the last few months as some of the residents who spoke to Daily Champion linked the situation to lack of commitment and environmental concern of the council leadership.
A resident trader and landlord within the city centre, Chief Clement Igboanugo decried the collapsing environmental safety of the town, saying the residents are living at the mercy of epidemics. He revealed that the city had never experienced any moment of steady collection of refuse by the local government authorities.
Though moves to contact the head of environmental sanitation at the council headquarters failed, a junior staff who volunteered to speak on anonymity decried the poor attention given their department in the council's affairs.
According to him, "as big as the city, Orlu is still using the two NDDC donated medium refuse collectors".
"As am talking to you now, one has broken down somewhere around Amaifeke-Okporo border while the other has been out of duty due to lack of fund to buy diesel.
"Our department is tired of begging for the approval of funds at the office of the Transition Committee (TC) chairperson just to fuel the only serving refuse collector for the entire urban area. No body is even thinking of repairing the abandoned one.
Most hit by uncleared refuse dumps include the ever busy Amaigbo, Ebenator, Owerri and Ihioma roads. Other axis that are seriously affected by heaps of decaying refuse according to survey include Enugu road, back of the Police Station, stadium area, Afor-Ogidi, Ihioma and BSC road.
The menace of erosion is more pronounced around St. Joseph's Catholic Church and Umusasa region of the metropolis where it was observed that more that 15 residential houses have already been submerged.
Some of the resident victims who spoke to our correspondent decried negligence on the side of the government over time, saying no realistic erosion control measure have been taken by the government in the last few years when the problem began to manifest in a devastating dimension.
Mr. Joel Udeaja, a trader along Ezerioha Road described the present leadership in the council as one of the worst and queried the cause of the delay in the conduct of council elections in the state. He frowned at the sorry state of every roundabout and strategic junctions in the metropolis including Nkwito, Owerri Road by defunct Progress Bank building, Amanwankwo, Mobil junction by Texaco, Ideato road junction and even at the front of the council headquarters where a massive police check point amlong the Ihiala-Orlu-Anara federal highway has rendered a daily visual pollution.
But dependable sources at the council secretariat confided in Daily Champion that the local government rakes in average of N59 million monthly from the federal allocation without any meaningful infrastructural project either new or on going to show for it.
Over all feelings of the Orlu urban residents show poor leadership and delivery of democracy dividends in the council as many called for early council elections and probe of the finances of the local government considering the height of funds coming from the federation account and internally generated revenue (IGR).
However when contacted on phone, the TC chairperson of the council, Mrs. Anderline Asika refused to comment, saying official engagements could not allow her to attend to the media to clarify issues of public importance.
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