Lagos Residents’ Waste Bill to Increase by 50%

Bennett Oghifo

Lagos residents are to pay 50 per cent more money for the disposal of their waste because of the increase in the cost of diesel, vehicle parts and other ancillary inputs.

According to the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and its partners, the Private Sector Participants (PSPs), the planned increase is on account of a “300 per cent increase in operational cost.”

The Managing Director of LAWMA, Mr. Ibrahim Odumboni told journalists there would be “an extensive and consultative review of the tariffs to meet the rising cost of operations from September 1, while new prices will commence on October1.”

He said, “PSP operators and residents’ associations will be allowed to fix the new tariff for domestic waste, since its management is dependent on lifestyles of individual tenement.”

However, he said the state government has approved additional subsidies to the PSPs to enable them perform better, and help them to evacuate the increasing heaps of waste on the streets of Lagos.

Odumboni also urged Lagos residents to have a better attitude to waste disposal to avoid conflict with the law, adding that 4,083 residents were cited for different environmental infractions between January and August, 2022.

Eighty three of those arrested, he said, were jailed, “1,000 sentenced to community service, while 3,000 paid fines of different categories.”

He said the government has started an adopt-a-bin campaign  and that it would prosecute tenements without bins from October 1, adding that residents are allowed to have a minimum of a 24-litre waste bin per tenement.  

He said LAWMA plans to operate a two-bin system, one would be for recyclables and the other for organic waste, but that “We are trying to ensure that we are not introducing any change that will automatically disenfranchise people and cause the menace of waste in our immediate society.

“PSP, CDA/CDC and LAWMA will take part in the review process, we want to appeal to tenements, the quicker we resolve this the better it will be for us in terms of the percentage increase.

“In some cases, it might be less than that because waste is dependent on your individual lifestyles.”

He said dumpsters and other trucks for evacuating waste would be retrofitted to use cleaner energy like gas in addition to diesel, stating that they had begun introducing dual fuel systems for their trucks.

“Two trucks have already been converted to dual fuel systems, 50 per cent diesel and 50 per cent gas for efficiency.”  

Chairman of the PSP operators and President of Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAMN), Mr. David Oriyomi, said “the unstable exchange rate and rising diesel price had informed the high cost of operation.”  

Oriyomi stated that there would be an improved waste evacuation with the support of the government.