The Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has assured residents that the Cleaner Lagos Initiative which reviewed the state’s environmental laws will reduce rather than increase hardship faced by the people with the imposition of stringent taxes.
Governor Ambode, who stated this in a media chat, described the initiative as a creative solution to the seemingly intractable refuse problem confronting the state and a frontal attack to reduce public expenditure.
He added that the initiative was borne out of his experience.
“Cleaner Lagos Initiative is borne out of my experience as a Lagos indigene. I have lived in Lagos for over 50 years. When you are coming into Lagos from Ibadan, the first thing you see on the right side is the dump site. Should I sit and continue to watch? The answer is ‘no’. “Even for imagination sake, that thing can work, all I need is players and team members. The city is very dirty. It is not healthy and so our total well-being and health is defined by our health status and productivity,” Governor Ambode declared.
“I think by now people should know that I am a dreamer and I want people to dream along with me. This is like a vision. I sit here as governor. I have been given the opportunity to process something and improve on it and I don’t want to misuse it,” he added.
He said the initiative would give equal attention to all nooks and crannies of Lagos State, adding that the consortium would divide refuse collection into layers and make the existing PSP operators bankable to carry out the job of commercial refuse collection, while the consortium tackled collection of domestic refuse across the state.
Governor Ambode said under the initiative, the people would need to pay their public utility levy once in a year and their refuse would be collected every day.
“The template we are using is that every ward will employ 100 street sweepers which translates to 27,500 people, who will be kitted the same way all over the state. Lagos State will invest in equipment just like in London and have a zero tolerance for dirts on our streets,” he stated.
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