Ibadan was dirty because unqualified waste collectors were in charge —Oresanwo

Lolade Oresanwo is the Chief Operating Officer of West Africa Energy, a private contractor that has the rights and responsibility of waste management in Oyo State. In this interview with YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE, she speaks on the revolution in waste management, how people can make money from sorting waste and why waste contractors should not entertain fear of losing their jobs. Excerpts:

 

HOW did you come into the waste sector in Oyo State?

This came about as a result of the constant problems in terms of waste management in the state; littering of the streets, drainages and canals with refuse and people generally not having a proper waste disposal practice. When we took over the job, we looked at what was on ground, the contractors that were carrying out the operations, and  we held several meetings with them to discuss how we thought the work could be better done. And what some of the contractors felt they needed to do was to go to court to prolong the conversation, they felt have no reason to question the way they were working. So as it continued, we found out that a lot of them do not go to collect refuse at designated areas and households appointed to them on appointed days. The previous classification method done by OYOWMA was such that people were only working on the sides of the road assigned to them. Subsequently, there was refuse stacked on the median that nobody wants to touch because someone else is working on the left hand side while someone else is working on the right hand side of the commercial areas.

 

What did you do about that?

We discussed with the refuse contractors on the need to reorganise operations in such a way that people are responsible for certain areas, to ensure that all waste is collected all across Ibadan and Oyo State at large. Again, they took the matter to court, they just didn’t want to dialogue because they were unwilling to change what they were doing and some claimed that they had been doing the job for the past 35 years. The question is: if you had been doing something for 35 years and a change has not happened in a state, then it is time for us to do something new and dramatically new at that. Some of them that claim to have been doing the job for 30 to 35 years have their wives and children also as refuse contractors, so you find a single family taking over some of the best and affluent routes in Oyo State and we say our youths have nothing to do, when a family is in control of a business. Same thing goes for a set of three brothers. The whole thing was just a sort of family and friends affair and there was no structure and you come to say let’s have a structure. They took the government, the contractors and everybody to court.

 

Doesn’t the government have a right to take decisions on waste management?

First and foremost, the responsibility of a clean city belongs to the government and they need to ensure that the city is clean because if the city is not clean, the citizens will shout that the government is ineffective; the government has to step in to say we have to find a way to do this. In other parts of the world, even in Lagos State, the government has almost totally hands off waste management, it is run by the private sector and a very good job is being done because the government has other things to spend money on; education, salaries…, why continue to regularly spend money on waste disposal? And that was the solution we brought to the state; that if the waste is collected in an efficient manner, we will be able to provide value from that waste, get revenue from sorting and processing the waste and employ at least 2000 people. Again, we were taken to court. So it is a constant battle in the court.

 

Are refuse contractors’ jobs threatened by this revolution?

As long as you have the capacity and the capability to do the job, your job is not threatened. It is the people that do not have trucks, but want to collect waste that have issues. If you don’t have trucks but have where you can collect the truck and is in line with the number of trucks that we stipulated in our expression of interest, then you have nothing to be afraid of. We have even called the contractors to the point where we would give rights of first refusal to the previous contractors working in the state as long as they meet the requirements for the expression of interest. That is what they need to be working towards, so that they can get back to doing their work.

The expression of interest is out; nobody is doing anything shoddy. While the contractors have been asked to stop work, we appointed interim contractors to ensure that we continually have a clean state. And I have to say that previously, there were 453 refuse contractors in Ibadan and the city was still totally dirty. Today we have 27 interim contractors among the old ones that have three or four trucks, we didn’t bring anybody from outside and they are doing a fantastic job. And the same set of people has engaged additional staff. I know the number of trips they take to the dumpsite, and that is what we want right now in Oyo State. Let the qualified people reapply for their jobs; they are not getting it by fiat, they have to work for it by meeting the capability requirements and come first week in August, we know who is going to do the job on a permanent basis in Oyo State.

 

What stands your company out?

There are a lot of recycling activities. We believe very much in reusing and recycling and there are so many companies that have approached us to indicate their interest in patronizing us for recyclable materials. A tissue paper company that wants to recycle waste papers is now in Oyo State, a plastic bottle company is already here. They come because they know that now we are beginning to collect waste and sort it in an efficient manner. There are so many uses for waste that people are just dumping into the gutter. That is why in the expression of interest, there are so many activities there that are not limited to waste packing alone. It will include recycling, waste sorting and waste processing facilities. We are at the moment signing agreement on a one gigawatt power station with Siemens which will bring in power generation. Some of those generators will be powered by waste in Oyo State; we are going to be the first to do that in Nigeria for rural areas and 100 megawatt will be dedicated to waste management

 

Is this not more or less an elitist project?

The grassroots are the ones working more with me; I have 3000 people engaged in Oyo State for some sort of waste aggregation activities. The women that collect empty plastic bottles, paper and aluminium are the lower cadre people and those people get about N30,000 to N50, 000 at the end of the month because they have been able to go round the communities to collect this waste. It is the elite that find it difficult to separate their own waste.

 

Are you are saying there is an open waste market?

Yes. If you have plastic bottles in quantities that can be sold, just call our office, OYOWMA office at Agodi gate, we will come and collect it from you and we will pay you for it. Plastic, paper, metal, cans, anything at all that is conceived to be recyclable, we will buy from you at a very good price. So, separation of waste is what we are really pushing for in the state and a lot of people are doing it already.

 

Why do some comply with environmental rules while others just dump waste on road medians?

It all boils down to enlightenment; in places like Bodija and Basorun, people are well-educated and know the significance of having their waste well contained but when you talk of the indigenous areas of Ibadan where education is lacking, it is different. Now, we have people going to those areas to enlighten them; give them waste bins and nylons to pack their waste in an efficient manner. The major challenge is that in those places, there is open defecation, people pack their excreta in nylon bags and dump it so it is very difficult to contain but we are working on it and they are getting into the consciousness that ‘the government through the Oyo State waste management authority is coming to collect my refuse today, I do not need to dump it on the street.’ That is what we are trying to inculcate in people that: ‘don’t put your refuse on the median; the government is coming to collect it.’ That is what people need to understand and there is an environmental law in Oyo State which is very effective. Have a waste bin where you put your waste and the collector will come and collect it and you have to pay for that waste collection. Waste collection is not free anywhere in the world and it is not free in Oyo State.

 

Don’t you think people dump refuse on road medians to avoid payment?

Let me tell you that we have enforcement officers on those difficult street medians because it is against the law to put waste there. If anyone is caught, they will be prosecuted and asked to pay fines of up to N10, 000. Then you ask the question, if you are going to pay N10, 000 as fine, why not use that to pay for refuse for the rest of the year. So, it is education, enlightenment, sensitisation and people understanding the dangers of putting waste on the median or drainages. We are working closely with those disadvantaged communities to ensure that they understand. The key message is that for people in Oyo State especially Ibadan, waste is not free, you have to pay, there are revenue officers appointed by government who will come to your homes with invoices, please pay to them or if in doubt, pay into the account of government in Skye bank. What we are saying is that we want things to be done properly, when change comes, a lot of people will kick against it because they don’t understand how it will affect them but a change for cleanliness is not going to affect anybody negatively.