The Bauchi State Environmental Protection Agency (BASEPA) has announced plans to establish a N180 million faecal sludge treatment plant to promote environmental sustainability and create employment opportunities for 500 youths.
The agency’s Director, Mahmud Bose, said the groundbreaking ceremony for the project would hold on Thursday, October 29, in Bauchi metropolis.
He said the plant would be established in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to treat faecal waste and convert it into biogas and organic fertilisers for use by farmers.
Bose said the project, being handled by Tall Wall Integrated Service Limited, was expected to be completed within 16 weeks.
On environmental sanitation, he said BASEPA had adopted community service as a non-custodial punishment for sanitation offenders, alongside fines where applicable.
He explained that routine inspections were conducted across the state’s 20 local government areas to ensure compliance with environmental standards, keep drains clean, eliminate mosquito and rodent breeding grounds, and prevent disease outbreaks.
According to him, sanitary inspectors conduct house-to-house visits, while special teams inspect hospitals, schools, restaurants, bakeries and hotels. Defaulters who fail to comply with abatement notices are taken before the environmental mobile court for trial and sentencing.
Bose said offenders could be ordered to clean drains and other designated public areas for one hour daily over 30 to 40 days, with the exercise supervised by relevant officials. The measures, he added, were intended to deter others in line with the Bauchi State Environmental Protection Law.
He said inspections focused mainly on densely populated areas with poor sanitation due to a shortage of personnel, adding that the agency planned to expand its services following the recruitment of additional staff.
