LAGOS’ WASTE MANAGEMENT CRISIS

ABAYOMI SILAS argues the urgent need to reclaim the city

For a city that never stops growing, Lagos cannot afford a waste management system that stands still. Every day, millions of residents generate refuse from homes, markets, offices, factories, restaurants and construction sites. As the population expands and economic activity intensifies, the volume of waste inevitably rises. But when the system for collecting, transporting, receiving and processing that waste fails to keep pace, the consequences become visible on the streets.

The refuse challenge threatens public health, obstructs drainage channels, worsens flooding, degrades the environment and undermines the quality of life in one of Africa’s most important cities.

It is against this backdrop that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s declaration of a state of emergency on waste management deserves to be understood.

The announcement is significant because it represents an acknowledgement that the recent deterioration in waste collection has reached a point where routine administrative responses are no longer sufficient.

The governor’s intervention is not limited to asking residents to keep Lagos clean. It is a broad attempt to attack the problem from several directions at once, expanding dumpsite capacity, increasing the number of waste trucks, opening additional receiving locations, restructuring the Lagos Waste Management Authority, reviewing private-sector operators and strengthening enforcement.

In other words, the state is treating waste as an infrastructure challenge. That is precisely what it has become. The inspection of the Olusosun dumpsite offered a revealing picture of one of the immediate problems confronting the system.

Olusosun currently receives between 220 and 250 trucks every day. Sanwo-Olu wants that capacity increased dramatically, to between 350 and 450 trucks, through an expansion of tipping points from the existing two or three to four or five. The significance is straightforward.

When waste trucks spend excessive hours waiting to discharge their loads, they are not collecting refuse from homes and streets. A truck stuck at a dumpsite is effectively removed from the collection cycle. That creates a domino effect.

Household waste remains uncollected. Refuse accumulates on roadsides. Residents become frustrated. Illegal dumping increases. Drainage channels become convenient disposal points. And the city begins to experience a waste crisis that appears to be everywhere at once.

Increasing the turnaround time of trucks, therefore, may sound like a technical intervention, but it could have a direct impact on what residents see outside their homes.

The proposed activation or improvement of Solous 3 in Alimosho, Ewu Elepe in Ikorodu, Oke Osho in Epe and Erekiti in Badagry is equally important. Lagos needs a waste system that is geographically distributed rather than excessively dependent on a handful of facilities.

The plan to have multiple operational waste-receiving locations within 30 to 60 days points towards a more decentralised system in which trucks can dispose of waste closer to the areas they serve. That could substantially reduce the time and cost involved in transporting refuse across the metropolis.

The government’s order for 160 new compactor trucks represents another attempt to address the capacity gap. More trucks mean little, however, if the infrastructure receiving the waste cannot process the increased volume efficiently.

This is why the intervention at the dumpsites and the expansion of the collection fleet must be viewed as parts of one system.

The proposed acquisition of landfill compactors and the encouragement of waste operators to invest in additional equipment are also important because Lagos cannot solve a metropolitan waste problem through government resources alone.

The private sector has long been a critical component of waste collection in the state. But the governor’s message to private-sector participation operators was unequivocal: capacity must matter.

The proposed review of PSP operators, including the removal of those who no longer have the capacity or willingness to provide effective services, could become one of the most consequential elements of the intervention.

A waste management contract should not become an entitlement. If an operator cannot provide the required service, residents should not be forced to live with the consequences indefinitely. Creating room for new investors could inject competition, professionalism and fresh capacity into the system. But accountability must work both ways.

Sanwo-Olu’s appeal for residents to pay for waste collection services introduces an uncomfortable but necessary dimension to the conversation. Waste management costs money.

Collection trucks require fuel and maintenance. Personnel must be paid. Dumpsites and transfer stations require investment. Equipment must be replaced. New technologies require capital. Residents cannot reasonably demand a functioning waste collection system while refusing to contribute to its operation.

At the same time, payment cannot become an excuse for poor service. The relationship must be reciprocal: residents pay, and operators deliver. That social contract must be strengthened. Equally important is the governor’s warning against indiscriminate dumping.

The failure of a PSP operator to collect refuse within the expected period cannot justify throwing waste onto highways, roads or drainage channels. That behaviour creates a second problem out of the first.

A missed collection may leave a bag of refuse outside a home. Dumping that same refuse into a drainage channel can contribute to flooding that affects an entire neighbourhood. This is why enforcement must accompany education and service delivery.

The announcement of tougher enforcement, including prosecution through mobile and public courts, signals that environmental responsibility will no longer be treated as optional.

Perhaps the most striking part of the governor’s intervention is his decision to restructure LAWMA. Sanwo-Olu’s criticism of an organisation with too many senior officials in offices while operational needs persist on the streets and at dumpsites touches on a fundamental principle of public administration: agencies must be structured around their core mission.

“Waste is outside on the street; it’s not in their offices,” the governor said. It is difficult to imagine a more direct description of the challenge.

The planned restructuring of LAWMA therefore presents an opportunity to ask bigger questions about efficiency, accountability and performance management within the agency.

Perhaps the most encouraging element of the governor’s announcement is that it does not stop at clearing existing refuse. The proposed 2,400-metric-tonne transfer loading stations at Olusosun and Solous 3 point towards a more modern waste management architecture.

Instead of treating waste simply as something to be collected and dumped, the state is planning a system in which compacted waste can be transferred to material recovery facilities for sorting and processing.

The planned material recovery sites in Epe and Erekiti in Badagry could therefore begin moving Lagos towards a more circular approach to waste. Waste should not always be viewed as useless material. Plastics, metals, organic material and other components can be recovered, recycled or processed for other uses.

That is where the long-term opportunity lies. A cleaner Lagos is desirable. Lagos that turns part of its waste stream into economic value is even better.

The scale of the planned investment, running into tens of millions of dollars, suggests that the state is beginning to think beyond emergency sanitation and towards the infrastructure required for a modern metropolitan waste economy.

 Silas writes from Ikeja, Lagos State