Again, litter is piling up on medians and roadsides across Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
In what is becoming a recurring decimal, heaps of refuse have, in the past one week, continued to mount on the medians with waste disposal trucks barely seen packing waste.
Notorious stretches of roads with unpacked waste include from Orita to Challenge, Molete to Agodi gate, New Garage to Apata, Sango to Ojoo, Dugbe to Molete, Bodija to the University of Ibadan, Aleshinloye to Dugbe, Sango to Eleyele.
Intermittently, the state has grappled with ineffective waste management owing to issues of poor financing of waste contractors, aggrieved subcontractors, full dumpsites/landfills, incapacity of the waste contractors, poor attitude of residents, failure of the state government to acquire its own compactors, payloaders, open trucks.
Last October, a similar situation was recorded with refuse being unpacked for over two weeks.
Then, the situation was attributed to the failure of the state government to finance the waste contractors (PSPs) while there were misgivings about intermittent policy changes on waste management and mistrust about the waste architecture to be implemented by the Governor Seyi Makinde led administration.
Officials of the state Waste Management Authority and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources had then met with Governor Seyi Makinde to resolve the quagmire regarding effective waste management leading to the mobilisation of PSPs to pack the waste.
Investigations revealed that the current situation is not unconnected with the waste contractors yearning for the state government to release some funds to guarantee the effectiveness of their operations.
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The waste contractors are said to be challenged with the policy of government where they are tasked to fund their operations from levies collected from residents without some form of monthly subvention, subsidy from the state government.
In implementing the policy, it was discovered that the waste contractors are currently facing weak cost recovery as the amount generated from the residents paying for waste disposal is not meeting the cost of purchasing diesel, fixing compactors and other vehicles, sustaining their workforce and running effective waste management
operations.
The task for the waste collectors is said to be worsened with residents who would rather dump their waste on the medians and roadsides for the state government to pack rather than subscribe to the registered waste contractors.
Though the state Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources has embarked on a number of enforcement exercises, stakeholders in the management of the environment, in conversations with Nigerian Tribune, called for stricter enforcement of environmental laws against indiscriminate waste disposal.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that Governor Seyi Makinde, on Monday, met with the state Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Abiodun Oni, on the issue.
In a conversation with the Nigerian Tribune, on Monday afternoon, Oni said the state government was urgently fixing the issue.
He gave lack of fuel as one of the reasons compactors could not evacuate the waste.
“We are fixing it. It is the main issue we are dealing with right now. There is the issue of lack of fuel,” Oni said.
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Again, heaps of refuse litter Ibadan
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