Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has declared a state of emergency on waste collection in the state, urging quick action to address the sector’s difficulties.
Sanwo-Olu made the announcement on Wednesday while inspecting the Olusosun dumpsite in Ojota with his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat.
The governor also met with waste management stakeholders at the dumpsite, where he analyzed the difficulties of municipal garbage collection and proposed immediate, medium, and long-term solutions.
Sanwo-Olu recognized the poor pace of rubbish collection in several sections of the state, attributing the problem to the failure of private sector participation operators to perform their commitments in recent weeks.
He stated that garbage compaction efforts were taking place simultaneously at the Olusosun and Solous 3 dumpsites and that if completed, the practice would allow for speedier waste collection.
The governor said recent fires at the dumpsites had hindered operations, but work had restarted, with contractors clearing the sites for daily waste disposal.
He said that after the ongoing improvements are completed, each of the dumpsites will be able to receive approximately 450 trucks of municipal waste each day, effectively doubling the PSP operators’ capacity.
Sanwo-Olu said, “In the past couple of weeks, we have seen pressure and slow turnaround in waste collection in different parts of the city. We have seen residents throwing waste indiscriminately at undesignated areas in the city.
“We are here to see what the problem is and for us to be able to declare a state of emergency so that we can take the state out of this unpleasant situation.
“At Olusosun dumpsite, we are planning with our development partners to build a 2,400-metric-tonne transfer loading station that will receive compacted waste, which will, in turn, be transported to Material Recovery Facilities being built at the moment.
“We are currently building two transfer loading stations of the same size that will receive over 500 trucks of waste daily. The second transfer loading station is at Solous 3 in Alimosho. We need to open up the road, and that should be ready in two to three weeks.”
The governor stated that one of the immediate measures being implemented was the stabilization of access roads to the five dumpsites to facilitate easier access and faster waste collection.
He supervised the renovation of access roads to the dumpsites at Ewu Elepe and Oke Oso and announced that the state government had purchased 160 contemporary compactors to improve rubbish collection.
Sanwo-Olu stated that development partners working with the Lagos State Waste Management Authority will offer additional compactors, while the government would purchase landfill compactors specifically built for use at dump sites.
He said, “The other solution we are throwing into the mix is raising the capacity of the PSP operators. We currently have a number of compactors that are not fit and proper for the size of the city.
“We have ordered 160 modern compactors, and they will start coming in soon. This will immediately increase the capacity of waste collection from the tenements and roads to bring them to the dumpsites.
“The PSP operators’ leadership has also appreciated the solutions we are proposing, and they are working with us to ensure these solutions work.
“The PSP operators have pledged to reassess their own operations and purge themselves of unserious players in the business. They are willing to take only operators who have the capacity, knowledge, and willingness to make additional investments in the business.
“We don’t want to have a situation where we will have 800 PSP operators for a job that can only be done by 400 operators.”
The governor also stated that the PSP operators had informed the government that they would purchase extra trucks for their members when the government expanded its fleet of compactors.
He stated that the state government will cooperate with the operators to de-risk the financing of the investments and keep them from going bankrupt.
Sanwo-Olu highlighted the development of transfer loading stations and material recovery facilities as medium- to long-term solutions to the state’s waste management concerns.
He stated that physical infrastructure at transfer loading stations and material recovery facilities would begin to be built before the end of the year, but that the facilities would not be completed until the first quarter of the following year.
“We are building two Material Recovery Facilities. One of them is in Oke Oso, Epe; the other is at Erekiti in Badagry.
“The plan is, if the transfer loading stations are open, waste disposal will be rapid, and from there, we can transfer the compacted waste to recovery stations for further sorting and recycling.
“This is a medium- to long-term plan, which, we believe, will come up by the second quarter of next year,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu also read the riot act to residents who dump rubbish indiscriminately in unauthorized locations, ordering prompt prosecution of anybody caught in the act.
The governor also criticized officials for ineffective trash management operations, revealing that the Lagos State Trash Management Authority would undergo organizational adjustments to increase its effectiveness.
