The battle for Cleaner Lagos

Until recently, Lagos could hardly earn praises for a clean environment. It was dirty, polluted and unhealthy. Segun James looks at the reforms taking place in the megacity

Like every other nation, the COVID 19 pandemic struck the Nigerian economy that was already hard it by profoundly unsustainable social and environmental problems badly. But in Lagos state, amid this problem, a silent revolution is taking place on the environment courtesy of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Over the years, Lagos had earned a moniker: “one of the dirtiest cities in the world.” For a megacity, this had worried successive governments in the state. All efforts to change the narrative had defied a solution. But if things cannot go on as they were, the question remains, what policies should be implemented to change them and with what goals in mind? That was the question that agitated the governor’s mind.

Alarmed at the state of the environment when he took over, Sanwo-Olu activated all the agencies under the Ministry of the Environment to do the battle for a cleaner Lagos. Unlocking the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), KAI, LAWMA, LASPARK, Water Regulation and the Water Management Commission to ensure a cleaner environment, cleaner waterways, cleared the drainage system and ensure a flood-free city by the end of his first year in office. The Governor insisted that, “we must look ahead to the future where we do things differently.”
It was a daunting task, but he was determined to accomplish it. His team was led by the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tunji Bello who took up the task with determination.

The environmental reform of the Sanwo-Olu administration is a complete rethink of how to manage a critical sector in a city where critical infrastructures are bursting at the seams due to population explosion and inadequate infrastructures. With over 1000 persons coming into the state every day without any intention to go back, it was a race against time.

With the state public sector facing huge financial pressure, much of which stemmed from declining revenue due to the global crisis caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, the Governor made it clear that the state cannot afford to leave the environment to the vagaries of the poor economic situation.

Particularly of concern to him is the mountain of garbage on the highways. After all, he was one of the eggheads that designed the Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA) and other agencies in the environment sector under Senator Bola Tinubu and Governor Raji Fashola. He was ready for battle on the sector. He took the agency to task on this.

He warned that the next crisis will be environmental if it is not taken care of and that the outcome will not conform to old mental maps; adding that establishing partnerships with those who understand the new landscape is vital to prepare for it. Hence the deployment of technology to monitor garbage deployment around the state and environmental infractions by unscrupulous persons who would not follow the new ways.

Determined on this mission, the city monitor app was created for the monitoring of all infractions and specifically for environmental-related infractions across the state.

It was because of these that Mr. Ibrahim Adejuwon Odumboni, a former investment banker was appointed as the Managing Director of Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA).

While explaining the use of the app, Odumboni said, “Everybody can download it on Google Play, IOS whenever you see drainage problems, you take a picture of it or construction going on wrongly or somebody doing waste dumping, somebody burning their waste because that is not allowed. Anything that has to do with an environmental infraction, even if it is like wastewater over spilling. Because if your neighbour has a soakaway that has broken down and it is overspilling and the owners are ignoring it, or noise pollution, that is what it is meant for.

“Because all the agencies under environment, LASEPA, KAI, LAWMA, LASPARK, Water Regulation, all of us will be using this app to monitor all infractions. So, it is a matter of you having it on your phone and then when you see anything that could create environmental impact or climate change impact, report, take a picture, what time, what location, date, and then you can enter your comment and then send it. once it gets sent, LAWMA’s own will come to LAWMA, LASPARK own will come to LASPARK. Like someone cutting a tree without bothering about the environmental impact of it and felling of trees illegally, that’s what the APP is for.”

Welcome Opportunity

For the LAWMA, today provides a welcome opportunity to take stock of where the state stands on the environmental infrastructure development and there can be no question that it is one of the foremost challenges.

To Odumboni, the basis for everything is self-responsibility. Everyone must be responsible for the protection of the environment. Another is respect for the rules of law by the people; and for the operators, respect for the policies and institutions, which creates enabling environment for the system to work.

Since he came, LAWMA’s operations have been decentralized into four districts. East which covers Lagos Island, Lekki, Ikorodu and Epe; West which covers Alimosho, Badagry, Ikeja and Agege; Central Which covers Apapa, Lagos Mainland, Mushin, Oshodi and Shomolu and the Lagos Free Trade Zone, with each district having its manager to oversee affairs at that level.
Odumboni said that these allowed for a quick decision-making process and closeness to service areas, even though “with population increase, the amount of waste being generated is on a constant rise.”

He recalled that following the take over of garbage disposal system in the state by Visionscape, a waste management company introduced by the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode administration in 2015, the system broke down. it was given the sole responsibility of clearing garbage in the state, The state was faced with a sustained threat of outbreaks of the epidemic due to the mountains of the garbage along major highways.

Unable to manage the rubbish at inner streets, the state government encouraged the people to bring their garbage to major streets for pickups by Visionscape compactors. Soon, the rubbish started fighting for space with vehicles on the roads. The streets were polluted and the stench was choking. As it piles up, it became an eyesore.

According to Odumboni, “When Visionscape came, LAWMA was then rested, but everything went to the side, LAWMA was distorted, and a lot of things changed. The whole system collapsed, people were told to bring their waste to the street and not pay because the then administration wanted to introduce a levy to each household that will cover the cost of waste management.
“And because Visionscape doesn’t have the capacity to go to the inner streets, they don’t have the required number of trucks to do it and the manpower, they ask people to bring it to the street, so it is easier for them to cart away on the major road. So, people then became very used to that ideology of bringing the waste to the major road. The decision soon destroyed the environment. Today, the story has changed. The PSP operators who were withdrawn by the government of Governor Ambode are back.”

He added, “LAWMA was moving with Waste Management law until Visionscape came. Now, ensuring that the PSP has the required number of support, which is why we see a growth in the number of trucks the PSPs have. From 624 up to about 850 plus now by virtue of the enabling environment that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has created. Because that was what helped to grow the way we managed waste in Lagos. If we generate 13,000 metric tons of waste per day, so each truck on average capacity 10 tons, which is what they will carry. So mathematically, you need 1300 trucks to ply Lagos. So, now we are 850 plus PSP trucks or about 900 confirmed PSP trucks that we regulate. Because we have 475 PSP operators, each of them is required to have two trucks each. So, if you multiply that by two it is now 900 plus. Let’s say 900 active PSP trucks as we speak. Then the governor has added 100 to our fleet, which makes it 1,000.”

Business Opportunities

With the launch of the new trucks and bins come business opportunities for the local market, especially the manufacturers of the trucks. At the commissioning of the 102 locally assembled compactor trucks and 100 Double Dino Bins, the Governor promised that the trucks would be deployed immediately to serve several locations in the city. He also promised to assist the PSP operators to acquire new and better waste compactors.

Odumboni confirmed this. “I witnessed the PSP and FCMB entering an MOU. Where FCMB is going to borrow more than N4 billion to replace their fleet. So, most of our PSP operators have loans in commercial banks at about 22.9% and FCMB is giving them 7% cheaper. Before all of them are borrowing individually but now they are borrowing as a group. So, we witnessed and encouraged and introduced them.

“I was an ex-investment banker; we designed the product for them and ask the bank to come and see if they can do it for the PSP. What we do as a regulator is to monitor and ensure that everybody is treated fairly. So, if somebody gives you a loan and it is 7% cheaper than what you get elsewhere basically it is as if you are giving that person money. And that is one other thing that he said as well. So you can either take that loan to buy a Dangote truck or take it to buy a used truck.

“But because of the cost and because of the design, it is wiser for them to go for newer trucks rather than used trucks. Because now that they are made in Nigeria it is way cheaper. If you are buying one of those Dangote trucks, let say you are buying it for 28 on average, and then you are buying the used one for like two, then you ask yourself can I have three years warranty? Because those trucks have 3 years warranty.

“The good thing is that they are locally assembled, they were locally designed and the only parts you see that were imported were the ones that were not fabricated in Nigeria. But most of the parts were sourced in Nigeria. So we designed them, and we designed them in such a way that we put the needs of LAWMA into it. We looked at our dump sites and factor the challenges into them.

“Some of the trucks you see are very low, the majority of the trucks that comes to Africa, have spent 15 years in Europe before coming. By the time they come, they are low and they cannot compact. Our waste is wet, it is not dry. Because when it rains, if you don’t have a bin, all the waste is wet before LAWMA comes then it starts leaking.”

He added, “So, we designed a reservoir there that collects all the water from the truck. So, you will never see water leaking from these new trucks. those leaking water, we take it to where we are treating waste for treatment. We are also building a lab to research and to see what we can do with the water to see if it can be put to use in any other way. One other thing we did with the truck is because we did most of it here because we sourced most of the metals here, it is way cheaper than an average truck. Even at the moment, because of a foreign exchange rate increase, the difference between this truck and a used truck is probably 25 per cent.

“If you want to buy a used truck now and this truck is 25%, it is more cost-effective to buy the new one. Because our Governor is very great in understanding finance, so these are things that we have done way before this time and, we have planned around it.”

And as Odumbobi admits, the stakes are high and the challenges are enormous, but the state government is determined to avoid environmental catastrophe. With collective efforts at all levels, and across all sectors – public and private, the battle to make Lagos the cleanest city in Africa has just begun.