ABSTRACT

The study evaluated the Implementation of Environmental Sanitation Programmes by State Environmental Protection Agency, (SEPA) in South South Nigeria. The Study which adopted an evaluative design has seven research questions and seven hypotheses. The population of the study was 12,486 comprising of 317 staff of State Environmental Protection Agency. A total of 606 respondents representing 126 SEPA’s officers and 480 Community Leaders were sampled for this study using a multi stage sampling. The instrument used for data collection in this study was a structured questionnaire titled “Evaluation of Implementation of Environmental Sanitation Programmes Questionnaire” (EIESPQ and it was face-validated by one experts in Measurement and Evaluation and two in Adult and Continuing Education.   Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. The hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) in South South Nigeria have been maintaining environmental protection services to high extent; they have been maintaining waste disposal services to high extent; have been adopting modern technologies in carrying out environmental sanitation services to low extent. The challenges that hinder effective implementation of Environmental sanitation programmes in South South, Nigeria among others include: limited funds and information, lack of managerial skills, high cost of pollution control, political instability, traffic obstruction as well as poor maintenance of service equipment. The study concluded that the State Environmental Protection Agencies (SEPA) in south-south Nigeria have been co-ordinating sanitation services to a low extent and that the master-plans for waste disposal implemented by the State Environmental Protection Agencies (SEPA) in south-south, Nigeria is to a low extent. It was thus recommended among others that there should be adequate provision of modern facilities to enable the environmental agency to effective execute their mandates