OCHA Brigade Launches Crackdown on Environmental Offenders in Anambra

By Mary Obi

The Managing Director of the Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra (Ocha Brigade), Comrade Celestine Anere, has issued a strong warning that anyone who violates Anambra State’s environmental laws will face prosecution and possible imprisonment, declaring that the era of leniency is over.

Speaking to journalists on Thursday at the agency’s corporate headquarters in Awka, Anere said the Brigade has adopted a firmer, uncompromising approach to sanitation enforcement as part of efforts to keep the state clean.

To bolster this renewed drive, he announced the recruitment of 200 additional personnel, whose primary duty will be to intensify frontline monitoring and ensure that environmental offenders are promptly apprehended and punished.

Anere expressed deep concern over the growing habit of property owners erecting residential and commercial buildings without proper catchment pits, instead channeling wastewater from their homes and businesses onto public roads and open spaces. He condemned the practice as illegal, harmful, and dangerous, noting that Anambra’s environmental laws strictly prohibit the discharge of wastewater, including water from kitchens, bathrooms, compounds, and car-wash outlets, into public areas.

As part of the clampdown, the Ocha Brigade will begin shutting down all car-wash centres operating without approved wastewater management systems. Any operator unable to show evidence of a functional catchment pit, he said, will have their facility sealed immediately, as indiscriminate water discharge damages infrastructure and threatens public health.

Anere disclosed that the Brigade has already issued a 48-hour notice, effective from Monday, to all car-wash operators and residents. He added that radio and other media announcements will be broadcast to ensure the public is fully aware, stressing that the agency has been issuing warnings for the past three years and will no longer entertain excuses.

The Ocha Brigade boss also revealed plans to commence the removal of shanties, illegal structures, and buildings erected on drainage channels across the state. Such structures, he said, obstruct water flow, worsen flooding, and violate planning and environmental regulations.

Anere urged residents to cooperate with the agency as it intensifies efforts to build a clean, safe, and environmentally responsible Anambra State.