LAWMA procures new equipment, targets waste to wealth conversion

MANY Lagosians still remember when the streets and highways were homes to heaps of refuse.

Those were the days the city of Lagos was ranked as among the dirtiest in the country.

Fortunately, those days now belong to a past, which Lagosians and their government never want to return, thanks to the state’s innovative waste management policy.

But, they have not been totally forgotten and no less a person than the state governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), still remembered when on Monday, he handed over 100 new trucks to the Private Sector Participation (PSP) at Olusosun Landfill, Ojota.

The governor said he still remembered those days when he was still in his private business and how the streets and highways were dotted with heaps of refuse.

He said when driving from Surulere to Ikeja, he always wondered what government could do to check the embarrassing heaps of refuse, particularly those heaps that used to be at the gateways into the state such as Ikeja, Ojota, Badagry and others.

At the same occasion, a member of the House of Representatives, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, also remembered what the situation used to be in Ikorodu before 1999.

She said if anybody had told her then that the metropolis could be transformed into such a clean and beautiful environment through proactive, innovative refuse management “we are all witnessing in the state today, I would have doubted.”

“ Was it the heaps of refuse along Mile 12-Ikorodu Road as well as in Ikorodu Township? But, we are telling a different and beautiful story today.”

A resident of Mushin, Kolawole Ariyo, who was at the event, particularly mentioned the menace of heaps of refuse at Olosa Bus Stop in Mushin.

“Apart from the nauseating odour, those were the days that refuse spilled into the highway and slowed down vehicular movement.”

He also remembered the eyesore that the space under the flyover at Oshodi was in those days. According to him, “That was one of the most embarrassing places where refuse posed serious challenges to the state government.”

Other places, which were mentioned yesterday as having been notorious for refuses heaps included   Airport Road, Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, CMS, Ijora, Ojuelegba among others.

But thanks to the former governor of Lagos, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who gave the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) the autonomy and responsibility to address the challenges of waste management, things are much better

“But today, the Managing Director of LAWMA and his team have not only succeeded in turning the Lagos environment around but they have also turned the embarrassing situation of waste management problems into a wealth making venture and an empowerment opportunity for Lagosians,” Ariyo said.

Addressing the present and the future, the governor reiterated the commitment of his administration to rid Lagos State of every dirt and pollution as well as create jobs through other uses of waste products.

He noted that solid waste management has witnessed a progressive change in the last few years as evidenced in a cleaner Lagos.

“The commitment of the state government to guarantee this project was borne out of the fact that in the last four years, over 16 thousand jobs have been created by more than 400 PSP operators at present operating in both commercial and domestic waste services in the state.

“The job creation led to growth of a new economy with indirect job creation for more mechanic, welders, plumbers, painters, tyre manufacturing companies, spare parts dealers, tailors and many more but to mention a few.

“Other benefits include poverty reduction, reduction in crime, improvement in public sanitation and hygiene, reduction in communicable diseases and capacity growth in best practices in waste management sector.  The business has also succeeded in establishing contemporary baseline in waste collection services for empirical applications within Nigeria cities and other West African economies and cities.”

He disclosed that attaining this modest achievement has been through effective partnership with the private sector in the area of waste collection, which has witnessed several years of fruitful evolution.

“The waste collection service witnessed the use of cart- pushers, female carriers to the use of open tippers, pick-ups until recently, when specialised trucks like compactors were procured.

“This new waste collection method has successfully overcome the challenges of the old inappropriate equipment that was capable of littering roads/highways with flying waste on transit.

“The new waste collection method has successfully overcome that old order with the use of specialised trucks such as compactors, skips and roll-on roll-offs.

“With a total fleet of over 640 trucks, used daily to collect waste on the streets of Lagos, the private sector investment in this area covers over 450 second-hand compactors with a secured loan of over 2.5 billion naira through direct investment by the private sector” he said.

The Managing Director, LAWMA, Ola Oresanya in his speech said the level at which LAWMA now operates is not just to clear refuse or simply to ensure clean city.

“We have gone some steps further to use the outfit as a means of empowerment and make Lagosians happy.

“Our refuse management strategy is second to none in the whole of Africa today as other African nations come here to understudy what LAWMA is doing,” he said.

He noted that the new trucks were to further ease refuse management in the state, adding that the agency was also taking into cognisance the welfare of its street -sweepers and other waste management officials by offering them financial incentives that would enable them establish on their own to keep life going.

According to him, “At present, there is an ongoing workshop for all supervisors of the street sweepers, to train then on the best way to go about their jobs and on standard public relations.

“ We have even reduced the hours of work for the street-sweepers from 6.00a.m. to 2.00p.m. to 6.00a.m. to 12.00p.m.

“LAWMA is also setting up a form of thrift cooperatives for them to assist those who would like to engage in other businesses after sweeping the road. These are means to boost their morale on the job.”

Oresanya, therefore, called on Lagosians to cooperate with the government in ensuring that the waste management  was taken to the highest level within the next few years.

“One of the best ways to do this is by paying our taxes, and also the token we are charging for refuse collection,” he said

Posted by admin on Jun 22 2011. Filed under Headlines, Lagos, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry