Waste Managers, LAWMA Call for Strict Enforcement of Environmental Laws

Fadekemi Ajakaiye

The Lagos State Government has been urged to enforce the state’s environmental laws for there to be an effective waste management system. 

This call was made at a stakeholders’ engagement on the 2015 Public Health Law and the 2017 Environment Protection Law, organised by the Lagos Waste Management Agency (LAWMA), in collaboration with the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria, (AWAMN).

The AWAMN President, Mr David Oluwasegun Oriyomi, said enforcement of environmental laws was very important in ensuring compliance from the general public.

According to Oriyomi, “We are here to discuss visions on enhancing the adjustment of the environmental laws of Lagos State. It is clear that there cannot be an effective waste management system without adequate enforcement of our environmental laws.

“There must be an effective enforcement system in place that will ensure prompt payment. If not, the entire system will eventually collapse as the waste operators will not have the necessary cash to carry out their operations, and the environment will be worse for it.”

The Chairman, House Committee on Environment at the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Olusola Desmond Elliot, lauded the initiative behind the gathering, noting that the state parliament would continue to enact laws to ensure the protection of the environment of Lagos State.

“One of the factors affecting the effective implementation and enforcement of environmental law is the executive, the reason being that at the Lagos State House of Assembly, we have done all we can to collapse all the diverse laws that exist today into one law.

“That’s why we have the environmental law. So you find out that all the different parastatals and agencies have all been collapsed into one law. It has been passed and signed.

“So, it is not the law that is the problem, but the implementation of the law, which is the reason why a gathering like this has become very imperative. Are we here to listen to know if there’s going to be an amendment to the law to make effective enforcement of these laws concerning the environment of Lagos State? I will be here to listen. Hopefully, we will also get a memorandum, so we see how, as a state assembly, we can make the law even better.”