Ugo Aliogo, Lawal Afolabi and Omotayo Ajayi
The Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, has expressed the resolve of the State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, to create 60,000 direct and indirect jobs through the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI).
Adejare, who disclosed this in Lagos yesterday at the on-boarding of the ward resident contractors to oversee the work of the 27,500 community sanitation workers, said the 60,000 workers would be well paid and treated well.
He also stated that the state government would ensure that their salaries are paid as at when due, as well as ensure that they are given the necessary support to make them discharge their duties effectively.
According to him, the initiative is also a poverty alleviation strategy by the state government.
Adejare explained that the ministry is working to ensure that the waste collection equipment gets to all areas in the state.
He pointed out that due to the logistics challenges; the project would be in phases “because all the equipment cannot be brought to Lagos once.â€
He stated that the ward contractors are a very critical part of the CLI, stressing that the state governor had called for the sweeping of the 377 wards.
He added: “We have a vision of keeping the state very clean. These ward contractors have been carefully chosen to make sure that the 27,500 community sanitation workers that we are employing that they oversee them at each of the wards.
“Thereafter, they will become fully in charge of them, and this entails replacing the equipment the state has given them such as uniforms. Also, the ward contractors will ensure that community sanitation workers are performing their duties as they have been assigned to do.
“We have done a lot of things before now which will make it possible for this initiative to work. This is another phase of it.
“We are going to have a ground launch of the CLI tentatively in first week of December, by then we will have covered a large percentage of the state. I’m assuring you that soon we will cover the entire state.
“It has been our plan to cover all the wards in the state. The state governor has said that he wants Ayobo to be as clean as Victoria Island.â€
