The Kwara State Government has deployed sanitary inspectors to embark on a house to house inspection as part of effort to ensure environmental sanitation as well as rid drainages in the state of refuse.

The Commissioner for Environment and Forestry, Samuel Bamisaiye, said while receiving reports from environmental health officers on the misuse of drainages in Ilorin metropolis that the deployment was aimed at preventing erosion and other natural disasters that might emanate from heavy rainfall.

Bamisaiye used the forum to warn all residents in the state to desist from dumping refuse in drainages and waterways. "This is a measure adopted by government to ensure compliance on misuse of drainages. We discovered that people still dump refuse indiscriminately into drainages, gutters and waterways despite the forecast by meteorologists on downpour this year.

"Government has spent lots of fund on expansion of drainages, channelization of river course and mopping up of streams and rivers so as to ensure free flow of water thereby preventing flood and erosion in the state," the commissioner said.

Bamisaiye said that government was also articulating strategies to prevent deforestation in the state.

He said that chainsaw activities remained suspended and charcoal production prohibited in the state.

He called on traditional rulers in all the local government areas in the state to ensure that trees were not felled by chainsaw operators and charcoal marketers in their domains in order to prevent environmental hazards.

The commissioner also called on all residents along the river course to vacate such areas to prevent loss of lives and property.

"Officers in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry will not relent in their efforts to apprehend and prosecute defaulters according to the Environmental and Forestry laws", he said.