The Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority, O-ORBDA, has urged the government to step up actions against river pollution to safeguard the health of the citizens.
The call was made on Monday during a sensitization and road show campaign in Abeokuta metropolis.
DAILY POST reports that the sensitization campaign was part of the activities marking the year 2025 edition of the World Rivers Day.
The O-ORBDA management, led by the managing director and chief executive officer, Engr Deji Ashiru, demanded that policy makers, as well as other key players, must ensure that individuals and companies desist from dumping wastes and defecating in rivers.
Ashiru urged key stakeholders in Nigeria’s water management sector to strengthen policies that sanction people, as well as improve enforcement of regulations prohibiting indiscriminate waste disposal.
The sensitisation campaign had a stopover at the Laketu River, along the ever-busy Abeokuta-Ibadan highway of Abeokuta metropolis, where Ashiru, represented by the O-ORBDA’s Executive Director in charge of Planning and Development, Femi Dokunmu, engaged in a symbolic river cleaning and tree planting with representatives of the traditional ruler of the host Alabata community and the Area Development Committee, alongside members of the Artisan Association in the state.
Prof. Adeyinka Adebowale Sobowale, the guest lecturer at the symposium held at O-ORBDA’s headquarters to commemorate the day, urged the governments of Oyo, Osun, Ogun, and Lagos states to immediately install mini waste water treatment plants at all abattoirs and other slaughter slabs so that wastes discharged into the rivers do not pose a health risk to the public.
World Rivers Day: Ogun-Osun River Basin calls for action against pollution