MASS Public Environmental Sanitation on once a month in a Saturday is not cost effective and not economically efficient. These shortcomings are produced by the people and the institutions of government.
Manpower critical to production is lost. Money for development is misallocated. Filthy environment still stares us in the face as we move through our streets and communities. The same thing is true for weekly sanitation in our markets: very counterproductive.
The way out is to imbibe the model of environmental sanitation developed and popularised by the Municipal Council of Cairo, Egypt. The conceptual model is called Sanitation Community. A town or village is partitioned into sanitation units depending on many factors that can aid service delivery.
Then, these sanitation communities are to have take-off support from the government. Funds and equipments are provided to each community after the election [not selection] of their Implementation Committee Members consisting of Chairman, Vice-chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Converssers, Auditor, Men Leader,Women Leader, Enforcers, Sanitary Inspectors, and Publicity Secretary. All these committee members are to have part-time tenure of office.
To take off, the government shall provide a take-off grant in addition. There shall be recruitment of workers paid on a monthly basis under the administration of the Sanitation Committee. Thereafter, they are made to generate income from their operations. They levy a collection of fees on the residents within their area of coverage delineated for them. They hire and fire and operate purely like a private organisation with profit motive in mind. Each year, they have an audited account. They collect solid and liquid wastes, sort and sell sorted products to willing buyers.
The government should be able to embark on the forward integration of operations and processes: for instance, build a mini fertilizer plant that can utilise the processed waste as inputs, thereby generating funds inflow and supporting agriculture.
To make this model quickly operational, The State can use an Agency with public-private orientation as conceived by the Community Department of the World Bank. Agency such as Community and Social Development Agency initiated by the World Bank, which has successfully performed in the State, can be the arrowhead of to kick-start this model.
The model had transformed Cairo City to one of the cleanest cities in the world.
A fact-finding team of government officials can be sent to Cairo for the purpose of assimilating the nitty-gritty of this beautiful model or contacting us for a detailed in-depth analysis of this model.
Dr Gbenga Daodu Esq. Sanitation Community Consultant.
gbengadaodu6@yahoo.com
