SANWO-OLU VISITS OLUSOSUN DUMP SITE, ADDRESS LAGOS WASTE MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES
Read Time:4 Minute, 40 Second
By: Balogun Ibrahim
•Governor holds critical talks with waste management stakeholders, reads Riot Act to officials, residents
•Set to reorganise LAWMA operations
Inadequacies currently observed around Lagos State waste collection across the system will turn around for good when the new measures outlined by the State Government become fully implemented.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his Deputy Dr Obafemi Hamzat defied the Wednesday downpour to lead an inspection tour of Olusosun landfill in Ojota, where the State is constructing a Transfer Loading Station.
During a critical meeting with all stakeholders in the waste management sector at the Olusosun dumpsite, Sanwo-Olu thoroughly assessed the challenges plaguing the collection component of waste disposal, proposing immediate and long-term solutions.
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The Governor acknowledged the slow pace of municipal waste collection, admitting that PSP operators’ inability to meet the agreed obligations in collecting public waste over the last couple of weeks.
Sanwo-Olu, who declared a state of emergency in waste collection, disclosed that there was ongoing waste compaction activities happening concurrently at Olusosun and Solous 3 dumpsites, which, he said, would pave the way for rapid waste collection upon completion.
Fire incidents at the dumpsites slowed down the activities. However work has since resumed, with the contractor working to clear the sites for daily disposal.
Completion of the project will see each dumpsite receiving 450 trucks of municipal waste daily. This will double the capacity of the PSP’s waste collection operation.
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 tonnes transfer loading station that will be receiving 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 said part of the immediate solutions being implemented was road stabilisation into the five dumpsites for ease of access and rapid waste collection. He directed rehabilitation of access roads into the dumpsites at Ewu Elepe and Oke Oso, adding that the State Government had procured additional 160 modern compactors to be shipped from abroad.
Sanwo-Olu said development partners working with the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) would be bringing more compactors to assist in collection. He also said there would be a need for the procurement of landfill compactors which are specifically designed for compaction at the dumpsites.
He said: “The other solution we are throwing into the mix is raising the capacity of the PSP operators. We currently have numbers 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 operation and purge themselves of unserious players in the business. They are willing to take only operators who have the capacity, knowledge and willing 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 PSP operators’ leadership has also assured us that, as the Government is increasing the fleet of compactors in waste collection, they are also making plans for the procurement of additional trucks for their members. The State Government is willing to work with the PSP operators to derisk the finances of this investment to ensure the PSP operators did not go bankrupt.”
Sanwo-Olu said the medium to long term solutions were the construction of Transfer Loading Systems and Material Recovery Stations.
Before the end of the year, the Governor said Lagosians would see the physical infrastructure development coming up on the Transfer Loading Stations and Material Recovery Facilities but the facilities, he said, would not be ready until the end of first quarter next 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 read Riot Act to residents dumping waste indiscriminately at undesignated areas of the public space, directing immediate prosecution of offenders caught in the act.
The Governor decried waste management officials’ inefficient supervision of the system, disclosing that LAWMA would be undergoing reforms in its organisational structure to enhance efficiency of the agency.
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