The president of Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAMN), David Oluwasegun Oriyomi has impressed on residents the need to be conscious of waste management even as he restated the association’s commitment to improved waste evacuation by Private Sector Participants (PSP) through robust government assistance to sustain their businesses.
Oriyomi noted that the PSP operators have a renewed commitment to their responsibility of maintaining a clean Lagos environment, despite obvious challenges, adding that the PSP would stop at nothing to get their job done.
He also promised that the PSP operators would continue to work closely with LAWMA, to discharge their statutory duties of evacuating waste generated by tenements in the state, while appealing to residents to ensure prompt payment of their waste bills.
He said through the years, Lagos, formerly known as one of the dirtiest cities in the world, has attained an enviable height and would remain so.
According to him, so many micro, small and medium enterprises involved in PSP operation, this generating employment for many people.
Also speaking, Taiye Kolade, the Secretary General of the association stated some reasons why it is difficult to manage waste operators in the state. He said “lack of waste management infrastructure coupled with the city’s congestion problem makes it difficult to manage the sprawling city, and this is taking a toll on its residents.
“In Lagos, we find people living close to dump sites, which are not properly managed, resulting to a city with an increasingly terrible environmental degradation. The dump sites have, over time, become health hazards to residents.”
“Because of poor waste management awareness, residents dump waste indiscriminately into drainage channels, gutters and on the streets. The refuse then builds up to block drainage channels in residential areas and the residents suffer the implications.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Olugbenga Adebola, spokesperson AWAMN said there are various ways which waste being generated could be recycled and turned into wealth.
“Management of solid waste is one of the major challenges. Inadequate collection, recycling or treatment and uncontrolled disposal of waste on dumps lead to severe hazards, such as health risks and environmental pollution.”
An environmentalist, Mr Adedayo Gbenga, the founder of King Recycling Agency, Ikeja Lagos who spoke with this reporter spoke on the need for government to engage more in recycling refuse.
His words: “The recurring threat to proper waste management in Lagos is the lack of adequate facilities the best recommended strategy is for the government to invest more in recycling of refuse, electronics and plastic materials. However, one of the greatest barriers of recycling is the manufacturing industry. There are only a few recycling industries in Lagos, and they are mostly owned by private organisations.
“In a large city like Lagos, especially in the rural areas, recycling is almost unattainable, as the recycling points and collectors are mostly in the urban areas, and virtually in these rural communities. Material goods like plastics are sold and used within these rural areas, and most times they end in the gutters or burnt, causing further environmental and health hazards.”
