PDP Berates Amaechi On Deplorable State Of Rivers Environment

By Rivers PDP
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As Nigerians join other nations to mark World Environment Day today, June 5, 2014, the Rivers State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, urges Governor Amaechi to take issues of environmental protection seriously, regretting that the Rivers State Government under Amaechi has continued to pay less attention to the environment in the State.

The PDP notes that over the years there have been avoidable cases of flooding in parts of the State, particularly, on major roads and residential areas in the Capital city, Port Harcourt, which have caused untold hardship and great loss to victims, who alone, bear the pain and loss without any form of government assistance.

The Party also expresses concern over the unchecked activities of industrial pollutants, the indiscriminate disposal of domestic wastes and the poor sanitation and waste collection system by the Rivers State Government under Gov. Amaechi, stressing that the environmental sanitation programme of the Rivers State Government is faulty and unable to properly manage and control the waste generation and disposal capacity of inhabitants of the State.

This failed environmental management by the State Government is undoubtedly responsible for the prevalence of certain diseases and infections suffered by the people of the State.

The deplorable state of most of the roads in most communities and residential areas in Port Harcourt and other parts of the State also exposes the government's failure and lack of genuine commitment to addressing environmental issues and road infrastructure in the State. The government cannot claim to be environment sensitive when even most urban roads are in bad shape, there are shacks and shanties all around the State Capital and even the water-fronts and shanty suburbs destroyed by the government, on claims that they provide shelter for criminals, are up till date abandoned and undeveloped without being rebuilt as modern residential towns as promised by the government before demolition.

Apart from rendering inhabitants of those water-fronts homeless, the Amaechi led government has further provided a safe haven for criminals, as those sites now become hideouts and initiation grounds for local cult groups and militants, whose freedom is guaranteed by such recklessness and activities of the government.

The PDP also expresses worry over the plights of some communities in the State, whose sources of drinking water and right to life have been breached following the forceful taking away of their land, thereby denying them their means of livelihood and subsistence by the Rivers State Government.

The Party believes that a government that does not respect the environmental right of the people cannot claim to have guaranteed the human rights of its citizens.

The PDP wonders why since his defection to the All Progressives Congress, APC, Governor Amaechi abandoned duties and responsibilities of government, which include protection of lives and property, provision of basic services and amenities and other elements of good governance to the people.

The Party therefore, calls on the governor to desist from wasting public funds on frivolities and personal political ambition and redirect the huge available financial resources of the State into tackling real development infrastructure and protection of the environment to ameliorate the plights of the citizenry. It is by doing this that we, as a State can better celebrate with the rest of the world, The World Environmental Day.


Signed:


Jerry Needam

Special Adviser, on Media to

State PDP Chairman, Bro. Felix Obuah

Thursday, June 5, 2014