By Aminah Umar Abubakar
Communities of the Bauchi metropolis are calling for sanity among waste scavengers in their communities.
A resident of the Majidadi district of the Bauchi metropolis, Abubakar Usman complained that apart from the continuous theft of peoples’ properties associated with those in the business, armed robbery is taking course.
Expressing concern, he explained, “This is how you will see a young man whose business you to know pettied in size with a new motorcycle or car overnight. Many of them are engaging in armed robbery and killing mostly cyclist to claim their automobiles”.
While explaining that every other business may have good and evil partakers waste scavenging is not exceptional as it has many evil-doers in it, he advised that urgent action should be taken to sanitize the business.
Confirming reports of incidents from community securities, the Bauchi state chairman of the peace and security committee, Sani Yakubu said the allegation of the waste scavengers on theft is mostly valid.
He said, their movement is no longer considered safe by communities, “somebody left his house when he came back he will not discover a lot of things. Anything metal regardless of how good it is this people will carter it away.”
The security committee boss in Bauchi affirmed that the children involved in the business are often recruited by criminal dealers who assign them to steal people’s properties, insisting that his committee has many times solved issues that include tracking stolen items found on the waste scavengers zones.
On his part, a public affairs analyst, Aminu Makama is particularly concerned about how underage children are recruited into this business with a lot of moral ruining allegations.
According to him, the recruitment starts at home following an alert of whistleblow by the waste scavengers, parents especially mothers look for metal-related items and hand them over to children to go and exchange them for snacks.
He said that “that way when the scavengers come someday and the parents are not in a position to provide the children with waste metals, the children resolve to take anything metals at their disposal and exchange it with the scavenger for the usual snacks”.
Aminu Makama while believing that the business is an employment opportunity for the youth, equally calls for regulations from the authorities concerned.
When contacted on the unfortunate trend, the Director General of Bauchi State Environmental Protection Agency, BASEPA Dr. Ibrahim Kabir said as the agency is concerned about effective waste management in the state, BASEPA has acknowledged the contribution of the waste scavengers as they turn waste into wealth.
In the same vein, he admitted that the agency has received a lot of complaints from communities and is working towards formalizing the business.
He explained that “as stakeholders in waste management, the waste scavengers are an important part of us, and that this is why we are committed to supporting their businesses. They have been reaching out to us and we are working together to perfect policies for their activities in the state”.
Dr. Kabir hinted that some of the items contained in the policy are having the waste scavengers registered, age limit, gender, and a sight for their expedition.
