The Anambra State Government has intensified its environmental enforcement drive as the Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra Brigade on Wednesday began a full-scale clean-up and anti-street-trading operation across major parts of the state.
Led by the Managing Director of the Brigade, Celestine Anere, operatives stormed the Onitsha Main Market and surrounding areas, warning that the era of tolerance for street trading and environmental violations was over.
Anere said the agency had adopted a firm, no-compromise strategy to enforce environmental laws, stressing that offenders should not expect leniency of any kind.
He emphasised that keeping drainages clean and fully desilted was critical to preventing disease outbreaks and maintaining public safety. “Any neglect will attract strict penalties,” he warned.
According to him, the enforcement exercise would be sustained across all communities without interruption to ensure long-term environmental safety.
Anere also raised concern over the increasing number of buildings constructed without catchment pits, a situation that forces many property owners to channel wastewater directly onto public roads.
He described the practice as illegal, hazardous to public health, and damaging to infrastructure, noting that state environmental laws strictly prohibit the discharge of wastewater from private premises into public spaces.
He added that all car-wash centres operating without approved wastewater management systems would be shut down immediately.
“As part of our ongoing operation, we have begun removing shanties, illegal structures, and buildings erected on drainage channels statewide,” he said. Such structures, he noted, block water flow, worsen flooding, and breach physical planning regulations.
He urged residents to support the government by obeying environmental laws and working with the Brigade to maintain clean, safe communities. “We want households, traders, and business operators to take ownership of keeping Anambra hygienic, orderly, and environmentally secure,” he appealed.
PUNCH Online earlier reported growing anxiety across the state as the government steps up its crackdown on environmental offences — including a ban on single-use plastics, strict action against illegal waste dumping, and the sealing of unregulated car-wash centres.
The rising fear follows the stiff penalties contained in the Anambra State Environmental Management Protection and Administration Law 2024, which stipulates fines, up to three months’ imprisonment, sealing of properties, and suspension of business permits.
The Commissioner for Environment, Felix Odimegwu, said on Monday that the intensified enforcement comes after a year of sensitisation efforts, public awareness campaigns, and extensive stakeholder engagement across the state.
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