Lagos Govt: We Are Moving to Circular Economy to Ensure Clean, Livable City

The Lagos State Government on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to a transition from the “collect and dump” system in the waste management process to a sustainable circular economy in order to ensure a clean and livable state.

Speaking while featuring on a popular TV live programme “Your View,” the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab enjoined all residents to imbibe a culture of proper waste disposal as a life style for a sustainable environment.

He said contrary to the viral insinuations that Lagos is smelling”, the state is evolving as a mega city with a sustainable waste management process.

He added that most cosmopolitan cities around the world have specific areas that emits offensive odours such as New York, Beijing and London amongst others, saying Lagos is not an exception but this can only be experienced around the landfill sites at Olusosun in Ojota and Solous 3 in Igando.

He reiterated that the state government just signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) last Monday which has completion period of about 16-17 months in order to minimize the waste that ends up on the landfill sites because this is what obtains globally.

 He said the state has an arrangement that will convert waste to wealth, where organic waste becomes composite fertilizers, plastics waste will be recycled to big plastic dustbins and all these are measures to encourage Lagosians to build a proper waste disposal culture.

According to him, “this concession signing is about conversion of waste to wealth and waste to energy. It means converting some of the organic waste, which is about 55 percent to compost fertilizer and convert plastics to waste bins. That means everyone must start building a waste culture that is sustainable”.

He said the government must set the rules, draw the line and must enforce all its laws because a lot of people have a culture of impunity built over time as such, they believe there are no consequences for bad behavior.

“Last week, a young man had a Toyota Venza, moved on top of a bridge at Alapere link Bridge, joyfully had his phone and was dumping his waste on the road and went away.

“We just had to tell MOT, give us the data, and we got the address and everything. Within 35-40 minutes he was arrested and being prosecuted accordingly.

“For some time now, we have been tracking and observing that luxury vehicles come day and night to dispose wastes illegally. Lagos is not any other states. Here, we have the whistleblower policy in place.”

He stated that LAWMA has about 250 operational trucks and ensures that for 24 hours every day, they are out to intervene in areas where the PSP operators are struggling to cart away the wastes but regrettably, some people still choose to dispose wastes indiscriminately.

He explained that most people come into the state with the culture they are used to, by being careless about the environment as such they openly defecate forgetting the fact that the government had built over 1710 public toilets across the state and the government has not stopped.

 “Lagos is not Eldorado yet, I will admit that. But Lagos was never at that beginning point. We have moved on. We are working 24 hours. We are not there yet. It’s a work in progress” he said.

He said Lagos on the map of Nigeria has the smallest landmass; It’s just like a dot with the size 3,575 square kilometres of land or thereabout and third of it is water that also accomodates10% of the country’s population which is over 200 million people, saying this is a recipe for environmental challenges.

According to him, “I make bold to say that Lagos has become a victim of its own prosperity but the government would not stop welcoming the people coming into the state on a daily basis. But the present administration is determined to continually put resilient infrastructure in place for residents across the metropolis”

Wahab urged all residents to conform with the legal residents’ identification registration process to enable the government make adequate preparation in terms of infrastructure in health, education, environment as well as other sectors.

He said the government would continue to ramp up its advocacy and would continue to enforce the law for the recalcitrant residents, charging all concerned to dispose wastes responsibly saying it is an intentional behaviour that must be adhered to.

“Let us always keep the environment clean. We may sometimes experience flash floods because of the coastal nature of the state. But I am assuring you that this government will not leave anyone behind “ he said.