Outbreak of epidemic looms at Apapa port. — as refuse takes over access roads

The newly-rehabilitated Apapa-Wharf road has now become an eyesore as the road, which is the major access to the premier port of Apapa, has turned into a refuse dump.

A heap of long stenching refuse now adorns the otherwise beautiful landscape of the two-kilometer stretch of the road, cruelly blotting out its aesthetic beauty.

The road, which had been in terrible state of disrepairs for several years, was rehabilitated through the tripartite arrangement among the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dangote Group and Flour Mills Plc.

The Federal government handed over the rehabilitation of the road to these port operators who co-funded its rehabilitation with the NPA to the tune of 4 Billion.

The road, which was completed last year September after one year of rehabilitation work, is gradually being threatened to be overrun by the mounting refuse which is daily growing in size and length.

The fear of imminent out break of epidemic has become more potent as hordes of street food sellers and other hawkers flaunt their wares close to the dump from where flies and odious smell ooze out.

Make shift bukatariats where scores of peasants and other port users eat in and take away flies-infested foods, adorn the landscape close to the dump.

Worried stakeholders have blamed the collapsed environmental sanitation system in Lagos State for the situation.

They also queried the inaction of the NPA which they claimed has failed to rise up to the occasion, since according to them, the road is a major access to Apapa port.