Martins Ifijeh
The Lagos State Government has given Visionscape kudos for achieving remarkable progress in the construction of Epe Landfill with the completion of the weighbridge and other facilities.
The construction, when completed, would be the first engineered sanitary landfill in Nigeria.
Stating this at a ministerial press briefing in Lagos State thursday, the Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Babatunde Durosinmi Etti, who presented reports on the state’s activities on environmental reforms, said government was committed to providing adequate infrastructure to support environmental management of the over 22 million residents of the state.
According to him, “the progress report includes the recruitment of over 13,000 Community Sanitation Workers till date to clean the inner streets, mechanised street sweeping to be managed by three private companies- Avatar, Wastecare, and Corporate Solutions, the completion of 48 mini-waterworks across the State including the implementation of innovative technology for water management, drainage maintenance remains with the Lagos State Public Works Corporation, among others.â€
Speaking in an interview with Channels TV yesterday, Visionscape Sanitation Solutions CEO, John Irvine, gave a succinct update on the ongoing project and described the process of excavating the waste on the 88-hectare dumpsite as progressive.
“We had to dig deeper than expected to excavate previous waste material and set up a strong foundation. We have built the weighbridge and the control tower. The next phase is the remediation work.â€
He said the Epe EcoPark would feature a material recovery facility, an anaerobic digestion plant, a waste to energy plant among other features.
“We also have plans to incorporate existing landfill miners (also known as scavengers) into the waste management value chain by including them in the recycling and recovery activities in the Eco Park.â€
