From Heaps of Garbage, Lagos Improves on Waste Disposal, Sanitation

Charles Ajunwa writes that collection of waste has significantly improved in Lagos State

Indiscriminate dumping of waste remains a major public health issue in Lagos State. With a population of over 20 million people, Lagos conservatively needs 1,300 compactor trucks to evacuate 15,000 metric tons of waste per day. Experts are of the view that any outbreak of water borne diseases like Diarrhea or Cholera which are sanitation-related would overstretch the public health system in Lagos. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in its August 30 and September 5, 2021 Report revealed that 2, 323 people died from Cholera in 69, 925 cases reported across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Cleaner Lagos Initiative

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s Cleaner Lagos project has given the state a facelift since its introduction. The governor was able to achieve this feat because he quickly started the implementation of the five pillar development agenda christened THEME, where he listed health and environment as priority in his inaugural speech in 2019.

He also took pragmatic steps to fulfill his pledge of keeping the environment clean and healthy at all times, rejigged the waste management system by making sure that the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) deliver better on its mandate as a regulator, introduced the Private Sector Participation (PSP) model made to respond better in collection of waste, and he incentivised waste sorting where people with organic waste would put them in separate waste bags for recycling companies to turn waste to primary and secondary raw material.

On August 4, 2021, the governor unveiled102 brand new compactor trucks locally assembled with low emission level and 100 double dino trucks for LAWMA as part of his administration’s Cleaner Lagos initiative. With 200 new compactor trucks in LAWMA’s fleet and PSPs 850 trucks, heaps of waste across Lagos are being evacuated timeously. The state government has also spent N2 billion to rehabilitate dumpsites across the state in addition to N1 billion invested in the construction of transfer loading stations which will provide the necessary infrastructure for waste management.

Interventions from LAWMA

Advocacy

The agency embarked on aggressive advocacy programmes in the 20 local government areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) through the use of newspaper advertorials, billboards, flyers, radio and TV jingles, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This advocacy has helped to reduce indiscriminate dumping of waste in unapproved locations across the state.

Provision of Residential Bins

It introduced the use of 14-litre plastic bins for about two million households to make waste collection easier for the PSPs.

Courts to the Rescue

The agency is now making use of over 24 Magistrate Courts in addition to two initial special courts to prosecute cases of environmental infractions in the state.

Deployment of Technology

LAWMA has fully deployed science and technology in its operations with the launch of CitiMonitor Application and Enterprise Environmental Monitoring Infrastructure Information System (EEMIIS), which enables the government to monitor environmental-related infractions across the state.

The CitiMonitor app which can be downloaded on Google Play or IOS, enables people to take pictures of infractions on the environment and post them within seconds to appropriate agencies under the Ministry of Environment such as Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LASPARK), others that would access the information sent to their different platforms and take prompt actions.

Environment Compliant Dump Sites

The state government opened five active environment-friendly dump sites in Ojota, Igando, Awuelepe in Ikorodu, Epe – opposite Aloro City and Iya Afin in Badagry, decentralised operations of LAWMA to allow managers of each zone make quick decisions and be close to their service areas.

Partnerships

The Lagos State Government has not only entered into partnership with the PSPs and ensured that they get cheaper loans from banks to enable them stay in business at the end of the day, it also approved contractors who take care of the monthly payment and upkeeps of the road sweepers across the state. The state government not only prioritised the cleaners’ welfare and well-being, it also gave adequate care, support and protection to the road sweepers as a result of the great work they are doing since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

Many public and private organisations as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) donate cash, provide tagged bins with their company’s name embossed on them and go further to sew reflective uniform for the road sweepers across the state.

Weekly Sanitation

Apart from Thursdays being set aside by the state government as sanitation days starting from 6a.m. to 10a.m., the local government areas (LGAs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) engage the services of the PSPs to collect waste from homes at least once a week at subsidised rates.

Monitoring Team

The agency has engaged the services of 250 ‘street captains’ to monitor the 377 wards in the state as part of its responsiveness to keeping Lagos clean in addition to the setting up of a call centre to improve the performance of the PSPs.

Outcomes

THISDAY visit to some locations in the Island and Mainland areas such as Oshodi Underbridge, Ikeja Underbridge, ObalendeUnderbridge, CMS Underbridge, Apongbon Underbridge, Mushin Road, Ejigbo Road, Ikotun Roundabout, Airport Road, Mobil Road in Apapa, showed that residences, schools, churches, mosques, markets, public and private organisations including the residents have all keyed into the Cleaner Lagos project. Today, the psyche of average Lagosians have improved tremendously as people are now afraid to drop waste on unapproved locations.

The Lagos State government through its urban renewal department has converted some of the under bridges to gardens and secured them with iron barricades, converted illegal parks and markets to open places for leisure which have enhanced the aesthetics of the metropolis. Oshodi, which used to constitute an environmental nuisance to past governments has become a little London with the site of a world class bus terminal there.

“This is not the Lagos I used to know a few years ago where touts popularly known as Area Boys are the Alpha and Omega. They desecrated the whole environment with their rude attitudes which saw the springing up of markets and motor parks where they forcefully collected all kinds of levies from traders and drivers.

“The whole levies they collected ended up in their pockets. But today the story has changed completely as the state governor has lived up to his promise by making Lagos devoid of mountains of refuse which hitherto gave it the cliché “The Dirtiest City in the World”. All that has changed for good now”, Mr. Okechukwu Okeke, a trader in Oshodi, recounted.

Gbenga Alabi, a vendor at the Obalenderunderbridge recalled with nostalgia. “This place used to be a glorified village some years back and the roads were impassable and unfriendly as traders littered everywhere with rubbish.

” But it’s a different story today, as you can see Obalende has been given a facelift – the roads are now free of waste and the underbridges are painted with different drawings making them look more attractive to the eyes. The presence of a modern bus terminal here has also reduced the nuisance constituted by touts.”

“Ikotun Roundabout which you see overlooking the Synagogue Church of All Nations used to be synonymous with heaps of rubbish all over the place but that has now changed,” Mrs. Nkechi Eze, a trader said.

Setbacks

Apart from the economic crunch occasioned by COVID-19 which has resulted in paucity of funds at the state and local government levels to execute sanitation works, the poor remuneration of road sweepers and LAWMA staff, the emergence of street markets poses the greatest danger to the Cleaner Lagos initiative.

The waste generated by these illegal street markets made nonsense of the state government’s efforts to keep the entire state clean. Logistics is also a big problem.

“The PSPs that come every Wednesday of the week to collect waste in Ejigbo for two weeks in August didn’t show up and no reason was given for their absence. The residents were subjected to inhuman conditions as the environment didn’t only turn smelly and dirty, the foul odour that emanated from the unattended waste became a serious health concern.

“During this period we were not having customers in this plaza because of the stench from the rubbish bin located at the entrance of the plaza. The waste collectors later surfaced and cleared the accumulated waste and our businesses have started booming again,” Christian Mbah, a business owner at Rasfunk Plaza, stated.

“The operations of LAWMA are opaque and shrouded in secrecy in terms of allocation of funds in the day-to-day running of the agency. Many of us feel that some cabals in government want to push us out of business after we borrowed heavily from banks to purchase compactor trucks. This is not good for business. We demand to be treated with a human face,” one of the PSP operators who declined to give his name, lamented.

Conclusion

As the Holy Book, the Bible aptly puts it: “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Lagosians will do themselves a whole world of good if they continue to imbibe the culture of cleanliness and high level of hygiene in their homes, offices, schools, churches, mosques and other public places.

Even with the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the story would have been different if Lagos had not been kept neat and devoid of waste that litter the streets. Today, Lagosians on a daily basis can move around because the environment is being kept clean always and not polluted. There is no outbreak of air borne or water borne diseases as a result of poor sanitation. The residents must always be on guard, and they shouldn’t lose focus!

This story has been supported by Nigeria Health watch through the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about responses to social problems, solutionsjournalism.org