The Lagos State government over the weekend stated that it is embracing strategic initiatives to address waste disposal and waste management.
Speaking with the media after a tour of the two major dumpsites at Olusosun and Soluos 3, the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources Mr. Tokunbo Wahab said the state government remained resolute in its determination to bequeath a sustainable and functional environment to Lagosians.
Wahab said that within the next 18 months, the state would decommission Olusosun and Soluos 3 landfills, transitioning them into modern Transfer Loading Stations where waste would be sorted, compacted and redirected to recycled useful resource.
“The governor has led State Executive Council to deliberate on waste issues; at every point of the discussion, the issue of the state of Olusosun and Soluos 3 always emerged; it is appropriate for us as ministry to take on the spot assessments of these landfills and dump sites and we have also opened up new landfill sites at Badagry, Ikorodu, and Epe,” he said.
He stated that discussions had commenced on ways to incentivise PSP waste managers to also take refuse to other axis that the state had opened up at Ikorodu, Badagry and Epe which are located in areas farther down.
He added that a meeting which had the blessing of Governor Sanwo-Olu would will be convened with the PSP waste operators in the coming week so that the plan could be concretized.
He said that in recent times, there had been engagements between Lagos Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, and PSP operators toward sustainable waste processing, modernised landfill management and structured waste carting and disposal systems.
Also speaking on fears for the healthy well being of those on the landfills, Wahab said everyone should first be concerned about the security implications of some of the faces on the landfill.
“We have to do the enumeration. Some of them don’t have to be there in the first place. Let us take stock and know who and who is supposed to be here and LAWMA is already taking action in that respect. If you have no business being here, leave this place. So, it is after that, we can start looking at how people work on the landfills. How do you kit yourself to be here,” he explained.
Wahab recalled that earlier in the year, government signed multiple Memoranda of Understanding MOU with international partners to develop waste to resource initiatives that would ensure that Lagos ventured into waste recovery, recycling and energy generation.
He said the state was gradually migrating from a linear “collect and dump” waste system to a sustainable circular economy as the Memorandum of Understanding would focus on waste to wealth, generating composte, converting combustible waste to power as well as waste to energy.
“We have designated and allocated space for our partners for conversion of Waste to Wealth project and part of the deal is once they start their operations and set up a Material Recovery Facility they will start the process of decommissioning and capping of the landfill sites,” he said.
He stressed that everyone must see waste as a resource for wealth and energy, saying that in doing so the quantum of waste that ended in the landfill sites would become very minimal whilst waste would be converted into other useful resources.
He thereafter assured that the state government was resolute in its determination to give to Lagosians a sustainable and functional environment which they would be proud of.
Accompanying the Commissioner on the inspection tour were the Special Adviser on Environment, Engr. Olakunle Rotimi-Akodu; the Permanent Secretary, Office of Environmental Services, Gaji Omobolaji’; Permanent Secretary, Office of Drainage Services, Engr. Mahamood Adegbite; Managing Director LAWMA, Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegeshin as well as other directors from the ministry and its agencies.
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