Nigerian agency restates commitment to clean, green FCT

The Satellite Towns Development Agency on Tuesday restated its commitment to the achievement of a clean and green FCT. The agency’s Deputy Director Sanitation, Mr Ahmad Abubakar, gave the assurance in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja while giving an update on the activities of the newly established agency.

According to him, “The Satellite Towns Development Agency is an agency that is just recently established that is in charge of the provision of infrastructure in the satellite towns. We intend to green, to achieve waste disposal, at the same time green the recovered places where we removed waste dumps; we want to use it for other things as a community pact. We are talking of sewer and drainage, provision of sanitation infrastructure equally like waste collection points, evacuation of the waste and sensitisation of the community to take part in all the waste management for a sustainable programme of sanitation. We started our programmes then the Minister of State came up with a programme that is a community- participatory programme, what we call ‘Cleaner and Green Greater Abuja. She promised to clean all the satellite towns and reasonably we have achieved to a reasonable extent above 70 per cent in the 14 satellite towns. We are managing this in a sustainable way, area councils are now taking over the responsibility for a period of time, let’s see what will happen before contractors will take over.”
NAN recalls that President Goodluck Jonathan last year approved the establishment of the Satellite Towns Development Agency (STDA) as part of measures to fast-track the rapid development of the satellite towns and area councils where majority of Abuja residents reside.
The Minister of State for FCT also inaugurated the Ministerial Committee on Clean and Green Greater Abuja Initiative on Aug 23, 2012 to ensure a clean environment in the satellite towns. This came after series of complaints by residents of satellite towns over inadequate infrastructure, especially the lack of potable water and sanitation. Five sub-committees were created to oversee the effective coordination and pursuit of the programme.


The committees are for publicity and sensitization, enforcement, mop-up operation, parks and greening as well as monitoring. Meanwhile, equipment such as Pay-Loaders, Bulldozers and High Ton Tippers have been deployed to Karu, Nyanya and Mararaba in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) to evacuate the huge wastes generated by residents of the satellite towns, Similar exercise is ongoing in Nyanya and Mararaba areas of the satellite towns. The agency, however, warned residents to stop indiscriminate dumping of refuse and to strictly adhere to sanitation rules.