LAWMA reads riot act to residents on mandatory waste bins

For easy collection and discharge of both domestic and commercial wastes in the metropolis, the Managing Director of Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Mr Ibrahim Odumboni, has read the riot act to Lagosians and has given them a September 1, 2022 deadline to procure waste bins in their houses and business places in the drive to rid the megacity of refuse.

Speaking at a media parley in Lagos, the LAWMA boss said the law will take its course, warning that every household or business that fails to comply will be prosecuted.

He decried the indiscriminate ways in which residents disposed of their waste through cart pushers that have been outlawed in the state, instead of PSP operators.

Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, generates 13, 000 tonnes of waste daily.

As a result of the high volume of waste and the need to keep the state free of filth, the managing director said the PSP operators currently have 1,100 trucks while LAWMA as a regulator has 150, pleading for the buy-­in of every resident to achieve the objective of cleaner Lagos.

He lamented that some residents have remained adamant in procuring waste bins and neglected LAWMA’s campaign for every household to adopt a bin.

According to him, if the residents heed the advice and procure bins, it would be easier to collect wastes from homes and business places.

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The managing director of LAWMA revealed that over 1,400 cart pushers have been arrested and prosecuted by the enforcement team, with over 3,000 residents fined and hundreds jailed because of infractions in the last two months.

He also decried the attitude of some residents who are in the habit of migrating waste from their homes to the middle of the road or inside drainages at a distance from their residences.

“Some people live in Ikorodu and when they are going to their offices in Victoria Island or elsewhere, they dump their waste on the road, highway or drainage where nobody can see them.

“If they do not desist from such negative behaviour henceforth, if we arrest them, they will face the full wrath of the law.

“Waste management depends on lifestyle, we should patronize PSPs and discourage the use of cart pushers, we will not disenfranchise any resident but we will insist that rules are obeyed,” he said.

He also hinted at plans by the agency to have more efficient trucks and compactors that can be powered by dual-fuel of diesel and gas especially now that the price of diesel has gone up.

On the maintenance of dump sites especially the Olusosun site in Ojota and Epe which have become a serious environmental issue as a result of the offensive odour emanating from them, Odumboni said that in three months the dump sites would start converting waste to energy.

“We will construct a fresh landfill between Lagos and Ogun State. Currently, we have over six dump sites. There is also a plan that in five years where every local government in the state will have a transfer loading station. This will make collection and dumping of waste efficient in that if there is any diesel or gas scarcity it won’t be a problem because the collection and dumping site will be within a vicinity,” he said.

The LAWMA chief revealed that the agency is currently converting waste from Agege Abattoir and others into fish feed, helping to cut down the price of fish and creating wealth for those engaged in fish farming.

On challenges that markets are creating for the agency in waste collection, he said that they have identified over 450 official markets in Lagos but noted that most of the problems they are having are from unapproved night markets or early morning markets that take place after the LAWMA’s sweepers must have done their job.

He warned that it would no longer be business as usual as the government expects attitudinal change from members of the public.

Worried by a 300 percent rise in operational costs, Odumboni disclosed a plan to embark an upward review of waste collection fees in the state by 50 per cent.

According to him, this has become imperative following today’s realities, especially the high cost of diesel and other associated costs that have made operating costs rise to over 300 per cent.