As Lagos State battles a waste crisis occasioned by overflowing landfills, inadequate waste infrastructure, reduced truck capacity and widespread resident non-compliance, in this interview with LADESOPE LADELOKUN, the Managing Director/CEO of the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin, talks about how new investments and stricter enforcement will restore effective waste collection
What would you consider the biggest challenge to refuse collection in Lagos?The biggest challenge is the enormous amount of waste generated daily, which is 13, 0000 tonnes to 15,000 tonnes daily, coupled with the refusal of residents to comply with the existing laws.
We have an existing system for waste management, which is built on 450 PSP operators, who are assigned on a ward by ward basis. We have 377 wards in Lagos. The system works by the PSP operators going house to house to collect waste once a week. The residents are supposed to provide bins and also pay their waste collection fees promptly.Over time, we’ve had a reduction in the capacity of the PSP operators for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is the non-compliance. I think it’s probably about, maybe about 55-60 per cent of people that are complying. The areas where we have traditional leakage of waste are the areas where compliance is low…. The waste that you’re seeing in the last few weeks is not new, you know, you yourself know.
You know it didn’t start this year. That same waste on the road is worse now because this year, we’re now facing an additional challenge, which is the… expiring landfill sites. I mean expiring in the sense that there’s no product that doesn’t have an expiry date.No matter how big your landfill is, at some point, it’s going to become filled up. And so, we’ve reached the point where the two major landfill sites, Solous and Olusosun are both filled to capacity. In fact, we’re no longer using Solous now. We’ve closed it. And Olusosun itself is at the end of life. So that has compounded the challenge of reduced capacity. You understand? So it’s like two problems coming to a head.
And the only way out is for us, the state government, to make more investments, which we have started to do. Three months ago, we started construction of transfer loading stations at both Solous and Olusosun as one of the critical steps that will stop waste accumulation.Even before now, there had been a lot of complaints about the two locations because when they were first being used, development was not as extensive as it is now.
Now, development has popped up, we need to look for alternatives. The alternative is to have a transfer loading station at Olusosun and the other one at Solous, so that the trucks can dump there, but they will dump inside a controlled cover and controlled facility.So, how do we get out of the immediate crisis?
We have provided satellite dumpsites, which existed before in Ikorodu, Epe and Badagry. The reason the PSP operators can’t go to these locations is because they are far. So, what the government has done is to introduce palliative measures so they can go long distances.So, we are doing a lot. Within a couple of weeks, you will see a vastly improved state of the environment. I mentioned that the big challenge is human behaviour. What we have done is to improve our enforcement activity. We always tell people that if you have a delay, reach out directly to LAWMA.
We have toll free lines. Reach out directly, not your PSP. We will respond. We will do something about it. There should never be a time a resident will resort to bringing their waste to the road. We see it as sabotage Why? Because, the road was constructed at huge cost for mobility of the citizens, so that they can go about doing their businesses.
It’s not a place to bring in the waste. And many times, they’re bringing waste to the road, to the median, and even through the drainage, and blocking it. When it rains, the water will be pooled on the road, destroying the road. So that’s an act of economic sabotage.
In fact, we’re going a step further now. As one of the interventions, we’re working with some of the local government chairmen in those areas where the PSP is not coming regularly. We are going to take our trucks, provide them free of charge to the residents to just dump their waste inside the truck. Don’t take it to the road.
One example of where we want to introduce that is Agege Motor Road. We have 102 intervention trucks in LAWMA, going around 57 routes every day, clearing twice weekly. So, we want to, instead of clearing from the road, go into the community and collect the waste directly. So, that’s another thing we’re doing.
You seem to be pushing the blame of the waste crisis to the people. Doesn’t LAWMA have its internal challenges?
I’ve already mentioned the challenges. I said we have disposal sites that are expiring and that we are constructing new ones. In the interim, we have a number of interventions that we brought in to manage the crisis until we have the requisite infrastructure.
You can’t manage waste without having means of disposal. We have 22 million residents generating 13 to 15,000 tonnes of waste every single day.
The truth is that you can’t solve the problem by opening landfills because of the topography of the state. It is at sea level. It is a high water table…So, the challenge is, for you to manage waste effectively, you need infrastructure.
You need to make adequate investment in infrastructure. We don’t have enough trucks. During Babatunde Fashola’s time, we had about 1,500 compactor trucks. Now, we have about 700 between PSP and LAWMA that are functioning.
Is that not a problem of mismanagement?
What do you call mismanagement?
If you had 1,500 trucks before and you now have 700 trucks…
There is no equipment that does not have a lifespan. That was how many years ago? Ten, fifteen years ago! If you buy a car, you must have a replacement plan. So, what we are putting in place now is a replacement plan which wasn’t done in the past.
We need 2,000 trucks, and we are going to have a replacement plan. Every five years, they must be replaced, which wasn’t done in the past. Those are the challenges. We have been dealing with insufficient infrastructure for waste management.
The other aspect is the bin. The question is, how many people in Lagos have waste bins? I mean a proper waste bin that closes properly, so that if you keep waste there for one week or two weeks, you won’t know the smell because you have somewhere to keep it.
That’s essential to waste management. We don’t have that. So, we need to make provision for that. Ideally, we should buy enough bins for everyone, distribute it to them and just add a small amount every month. Maybe in five years, the cost will have been covered. That’s what is being done in other jurisdictions.
All I’m trying to say is that LAWMA has recognised the gaps in the system. We are going to make the necessary investments, so that we won’t be having this kind of crisis.
You mentioned earlier that Lagosians could call LAWMA on certain toll free lines for waste disposal instead of littering roads with refuse. Why then do we have the current waste crisis if it’s effective, or would you say awareness is low?
No, you can’t make general statements. I mentioned to you that there are 450 operators. That means 450 individual operational routes. You don’t have this problem everywhere.
There are problems in some areas, and it varies. In some areas, actually, the operator and the community have agreed on different collection frequencies. Sometimes, it’s twice a month; sometimes it’s once a month.
So, what we do is that we have monitoring teams that monitor the activities of the PSP operators. And they have a range of measures that they measure their performance with. We have monthly reports for every one of the 450. And then we score them accordingly. We have detailed feedback from the residents.
Those areas that we need to intervene and step in, we are able to do that. When we see that they’re not doing well, we caution them. And if they receive enough caution without rectifying the problem, we can take away their license. So, it’s an on-going daily process.
We’re introducing more appropriate systems for different areas in a bid to solve the issues they have in those areas. So the system is effective. When people have complaints, we respond. We have customer service. We have three lines, 07080601020, 08000052 962.
Then we have 617. But I think those ones are for Glo subscribers. And then we have email. A lot of people send us email, info@ lawma.gov.ng. And then we have social media platforms, Facebook, X, Instagram that people send complaints to me and I act on every complaint. And they would acknowledge to say ‘thank you, they’ve come’.
So, it’s a continuous process. We’re here to ensure service delivery for every Lagosian. We encourage people to always reach out to us. Don’t resort to selfhelp by taking waste to the road. Reach out to us and give us time. Trust us that we’ll do something about your immediate problem.
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN NEW TELEGRAPH
NEWS NOW:
