Clean-Up Nigeria (CUN), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) on Tuesday announced Abuja city as the cleanest city, while Akwa Ibom emerged as the cleanest state in the country.

Mr. Prince Ene Baba-Owoh Jr. National Coordinator/Secretary, National Technical Study Group of the organization, disclosed this is in Abuja at a virtual meeting on the state of Nigeria’s environment.

Baba-Owoh said that the study was scored on five performance indicators via physical verification which accounted for 20 percent and the deployment of the GEO-Eye-1 satellite.

He said that the GEO-Eye-1 satellite had the highest resolution imagery system in the world.

“GEO-Eye-1 satellite is able to collect images with a ground resolution of 0.41 metres (16 inches) in panchromatic and multispectral from the orbit every quarter year-round.

“It gives accurate reliable data that is applied to the five performance indicators as highlighted as follows: streets/road cleanliness, 30 percent.

“Vegetation/drain controls, 20 percent, waste management service, 30 percent, public opinion poll and social media, 10 percent.

“Also, knowledge, attitude, and practice of hygiene and sanitation of the people, 10 percent, totaling 100 percent.

“The 2020 study ran from December 2019 to November 2020 with quarterly evaluation,” Baba-Owoh said.

He said that Ebonyi State came a distant second, scoring 44 percent to Akwa Ibom’s 80 percent.

“Lagos, Bauchi, Federal Capital Territory, Cross River, Rivers, Plateau, Niger and Ekiti States were placed third to 10th respectively in descending order.

“Meanwhile, Kogi was the lowest-ranked state in the study,” Baba-Owoh said.

He said the study was conducted by CUN with the support of global project partners from Canada, the USA, Germany, France, and Australia.

Baba-Owoh said that the study observed a significant drop in the level of waste management in the country.

He urged all tiers of government to collaborate with other relevant stakeholders for effective waste management to improve hygiene and sanitation.

The coordinator noted that Nigerians living in unclean environments had increased from 68 million in 2019 to 170 million in 2020.

He said that the most disturbing information was that Nigeria still remained the Number One country in the world in the practice of open defecation.

“In terms of waste management privatization which is part of the millennium set goals with 2020 as deadline, many states government are still far from achieving the goal.

“Most are directly involved in the management of waste rather than privatizing it which would have improved service delivery,” Baba-Owoh.

He said the organization observed that the informal sector operators of waste recycling and reuse enterprises recorded lower patronage, which was about 37 percent in 2020 as against 43 percent in 2019.

Baba-Owoh said CUN urged the government to improve the salary and wages structure for environmental health workers as they were faced with job hazards.

He said the organization also called for the setting up of more health and environment clubs in schools.