Lagos State government has expressed its intention and readiness to collaborate and welcome would be investors in areas of municipal solid waste to energy, waste to wealth or liquid waste.
The indication was given over the weekend by the State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr.Tokunbo Wahab, while featuring as a panelist at the Havard University Climate Action Week with the theme: “Rising Seas, Resilient Communities, Climate Adaptation Strategies in West Africa”.
According to Wahab, the present administration in Lagos State had set up a climate adaptation plan and climate resilience plan which encapsulates its vision and policies.
He explained that the state had already carried out two pre-feasibility studies on waste to energy and waste water projects to demonstrate its commitment.
He added that with a population of over 20 million, generating 13,000 metric tonnes of waste daily, the state was adopting a very sustainable climate friendly approach which tended to see waste as a resource.
“We now see waste as a resource for wealth, a resource for energy because the quantum of waste that ends in our landfill sites will become very minimal whilst we convert our waste into a better resource.
“As a state, we have set up policies and laws that enable us as a sub-national to reach out to neighbouring countries where they have expertise and a proven track record for what we seek to do,” he stated.
He buttressed his point with the contractual agreement signed 18 months with a company in Ghana which will take 4,000 metric tonnes of municipal waste out of the 13,000 generated daily and convert it to wealth, composite fertilizers, recyclable plastics and also set up a transfer station for the most challenging parts.
“If that contractual obligation is successfully carried out, we seek to also decommission one of our biggest landfills at Olusosun and Solous. All these are symbols of a progress of collaboration,” he explained.
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The commissioner said Lagos as a coastal city was exposed to the effect of climate change, sea level rise, heavy rainfall and excessive heat which brought about flash flooding when there was tidal lock due to the inability of water to discharge into its sources.
He opined that as a responsible government, the state had put in place resilient drainage infrastructure and also pushing back on people who fully chose to build on flood plains and drainage setbacks.
“We also prosecute those who wilfully destroy the ecosystem. We are doing our bit. We also tell citizens to desist from dumping municipal waste in the drainage. It is a recipe for flooding.”
He lamented that aerial geographic information had shown that the original landmass of Lagos which was 3,577 Sq.m had increased to 4,050 sq.m due to massive reclamation of wetlands and lagoon water bodies for real estate construction.
He said the state had also been exercising it’s legal powers to check excesses that came with the human activity by insisting that anyone who intended to embark on a reclamation must obtain an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approval.
Wahab added that such an application for reclamation must have a drainage master plan to demonstrate how storm water from that reclamation would be properly discharged into the water body.
