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Determined to enhance environmental best practices and generate electricity, the Cross River State Government has reached an arrangement with recyclable energy experts on possible waste management solutions.
The Managing Director of Asaju Energy, Ayodeji Okele in partnership with a consortium of French companies were at the Government Office, Calabar, to meet with the governor, Professor Ben Ayade.
Feasibility study
Okele, who made a multi-media presentation to the governor, said that the team was in Calabar to conduct a feasibility study on the waste management situation in Cross River.
“We have been having a discussion about this project over a year ago with regard to the waste management situation in Cross River State and we arrived at the idea that we would need to do proper feasibility studies to find out what solution would be best suited and also what solution will be economically viable.”
According to the team lead, the experts are expected to develop sustainable solution for disposal of municipal waste, liquid and solid as well as proffer solutions for the generation of electricity from the end products at the end of the day.
The purpose of the feasibility study was to have an idea of the technical and financial basis for the project, stressing that their studies will take about six months to be completed.
Lifesaving intervention
Responding to the gesture, Governor Ayade appreciated the French Government for choosing to partner with Cross River State in the drive to promote sustainable environment through best practices.
Professor Ayade said that the project when completed, would be a life saving intervention.
The governor stated, “This is not a research, it is a lifesaving intervention mission and that is why you are here. So, if you approach it from that perspective, your concept of time will become more delicate and sensitive.
“I do not believe that you need six months to do this feasibility study. You just need to put more effort and time. This is because when you finish your feasibility study, you will end up with a position statement, which states that it is a feasible project.”
“After that, you go back to the French Government to process the actual final milestone, which is the actual implementation. So, if it takes you six months for feasibility study, by the time you get the final approval it will be towards the end of next year and that is not the level of pulse we need.”
Study duration
Making reference to the tour of the largest dump site in the municipal, Governor Ayade said: “With what you saw when you went to one of the dump sites, the city has grown to join the refuse. People are basically living in the refuse dump. So for us, this project is an existential, fundamental and humanitarian effort by the French government.”
“With the dumping of all of the unsegregated refuse, with fire and smoke billowing from there triggers a generation of different types of gases, which interfere with the learning capacity of a child.
“And so for us, three months or at the most four will be reasonable for a feasibility study; that gives us the opportunity to go back to the French Government with our proposal in hand. By the first quarter of next year, we can move into the implementation proper,” he averred.
Okele and his team, which included french companies such as Gilles Bacquet, GB Consult and Services; Laurent Lambs, Project Manager Serge Experts, earlier undertook an inspection tour of the major dump site in Calabar.
Lateefah Ibrahim
