‘PSPs’ low performance, cause of refuse disposal problems in Ibadan’

Following complaints from several parts of Ibadan metropolis that refuse dumps were piling up in their surroundings, the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Chief Isaac Ishola has explained that lack of capacity and ability of old Private Service Providers (PSPs) was to blame, adding that government’s ongoing plans to reorganise solid waste management will soon start yielding desired results.

In an exclusive interview with Nigerian Tribune, the commissioner said a history of unsatisfactory performance by PSPs in refuse collection led to a review of the system.

He said, “According to our regulations, we normally appoint the PSPs yearly. We engage them for one year. After they have worked with us for one year, we like to see how well they have performed. If you perform very well, your appointment will be renewed. But by 2012/2013, government felt they were not really performing. And their appointment in the past was not based on capacity or ability. So, we decided to disengage some of these people and re-distribute their routes.”

“In May, all of them were disengaged. It was decided that the government will advertise to see those with  ability to perform. We discovered that out of about 300 PSPs we had in Oyo State, in Ibadan in particular, 20 per cent of them did not have the capacity and that is why so many of them were using carts. We initially gave them a query for non-performance, which many of them replied through their lawyers. Immediately we disengaged them, we knew there would be vacuum.”

He explained that after an advertisement was put out, about 40 were engaged immediately which had the required capacity, ability and experience. The advertisement closed July 31, and the new PSPs will be resuming this week.