Warri residents worry over plan to ban sachet water, wearing rubber silppers

RESIDENTS of Warri, Delta State and environs are panicking over a story making the round that production and sale of sachet water, otherwise known as pure water,  pushing and wearing of sleepers  on major streets would soon be banned by the state government.
The people are yet to overcome the ban on the operation of commercial motorcyclists in major towns in the oil-rich state on November 1, with its attendant effects of over 100 per cent hike in transport fare and scarcity of fuel.

A female passenger enroute Decko junction in Warri town could not hide her emotion when accosted by Community News. Declining to be identified, the woman in her middle age, vented her anger in pidgin:

"This government dey craze. They won kill us? We never survive the okada wey dem ban dem come dey talk of banning sale of pure water, wheelbarrow pushing and wearing of sleepers. E no go better for......," she concluded with other passengers nodding in praise of her courage.

Another female passenger swiftly rose up in defence of the impending policy. "Na for we good dem dey ban am o. Governor Uduaghan government dey try, we suppose support am. Abi una don forget the one wey rule before am? Wetin we eyes see? Una no see as Lagos be today," the lady, who would not want to be identified, argued.

Already, there are complaints over a sachet of water that is being sold for N10 in every part of the state. This notwithstanding, a ban on pure water is seen as another unpopular decision that will further plunge the people into harder times.

The government is said to be favourably disposed to bottled water in place of sachet water which wastes have littered every nook and cranny of major towns there blurring the aesthetics of the environment.

With no mechanism in place for waste evacuation in Asaba and Warri towns, many truck pushers eke out a living from helping residents who care about their generated waste to dump it in only-God-knows-where as only few skip bins are visible in the towns.

Commissioner of Information, Mr Ogea Chike, who was contacted on phone on the rumour, could not respond, as he was in a meeting as at press time.

Meanwhile, Warri-based National Chairman of Human Rights Defenders Organisation of Nigeria, Sir C.D.S Omon-Irabor, in a chat with Community News, dismissed the rumour as baseless, uncivilised and a figment of the imagination of people who do not mean well for the government of Dr Uduaghan.

Written by Ebenezer Adurokiya, Nigerian Tribune