The Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA) has commenced a crackdown on informal waste workers, popularly known as cart pushers, and illegal scavengers over their alleged role in the refuse crisis in Port Harcourt.
The Managing Director of RIWAMA, Dr. Ibimina Wokoma, said the activities of the informal waste workers were undermining the agency’s efforts to maintain a clean environment, resulting in refuse heaps and indiscriminate littering across the city.
Wokoma explained that the cart pushers often collect waste from homes at unauthorised hours and dump it indiscriminately in gutters, water channels and road medians, including after approved service providers have completed their waste evacuation operations.
He warned that such practices contribute to blocked drainage channels and flooding, while undermining the agency’s waste management system.
The RIWAMA managing director disclosed that the agency had commenced compulsory profiling of scavengers and scrap dealers as part of efforts to regulate their activities.
He added that enforcement teams, working in collaboration with the police, had begun clamping down on defaulters.
RIWAMA urged residents to engage only agency-approved waste contractors and dispose of their refuse at designated receptacles between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
The agency also warned residents against handing their waste to cart pushers in the morning, stressing that public cooperation was necessary to address the refuse situation and restore Port Harcourt’s status as the Garden City.
