Waste hampers Nima project
Open defaecation and indiscriminate disposal of waste by residents along the Nima drain project are posing challenges to the project.
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The construction of the second phase of the 1.2-kilometre drain that would connect Nima and its environs to the Odaw River began last year.
The drain is five metres wide and 2.5 metres deep and is the largest drain of its kind in the city.
Already, 405 metres of the drain has been completed and the Resident Engineer of the project, Ing. Wise Ametefe, on a tour of the site, with representatives of the Department of Urban Roads and the contractors, said with the steady pace of work, the project could be completed before schedule.
Challenges
A Health and Safety Officer at the site, Mr Farouk Yakubu, said petty theft of materials, defaecation at the section of the drain already constructed and the use of the area by vagrants and drug addicts as smoking areas and sleeping places were part of the challenges workers contended with on a daily basis.
He said workers came to work every morning to meet faeces and rubbish that had to be disposed of before any work began.
Sometimes, they met vagrants smoking and were helpless in preventing them from using the drains for that purpose.
Mr Yakubu added that domestic animals such as sheep and cattle were also led to graze through the drain and workers had to stop work and resume after the herd had passed.
Ing. Ametefe explained that to get a robust drain, the ground had to be de-silted, filled and consolidated.
He said the cost of disposing of the garbage that had filled and choked the drain was more than the cost of the drain itself.
He called for a change in attitude to enable the desired development that all were yearning for.