Ayodele Olalere
Lagos State Waste Management Authority, LAWMA’s, Managing Director, and Chief Executive Officer, Ibrahim Odumboni, on Wednesday said 83 persons have been convicted and jailed, over 1,200 penalised to sweep while over 3,000 fined for committing various forms of offences relating to indiscriminate disposal of waste in Lagos, in the last one year.
While addressing the press on the activities of the agency since the beginning of the year as well as the state of affairs on waste management in Lagos, Odumboni said the prosecution of the offenders was necessary so as to deter bad culture of indiscriminate disposal of waste.
“83 people were jailed last year from waste related offences. Over 1,200 did community service by joining our sweepers to sweep and over 3,000 were fined. But the most important thing for us is that we ensure we do the right thing,” he said.
He warned that the agency would not stop prosecuting anyone found disposing of waste indiscriminately.
“For people out there, who continue to migrate and dump waste indiscriminately, any time you are caught, you would be held responsible and would face the wrath of the law,” he warned.
He further said the agency’s enforcement team have seized over 1,400 carts across the State in the last two months “to ensure a much more formal, agreeable and consistent system of waste is introduced into our society.”
Odumboni blamed truck pushers for dumping waste in canals and drainages thereby causing drainage blockages.
He frowned at offenders who inflict attacks on workers and facilities of the agency, saying it has further emboldened the law enforcement agents to bring culprits to book.
The LAWMA boss said the agency is now working with LASTMA, the Neighborhood Watch and other security agencies to prosecute those caught on the live time metropolitan cameras across the State.
Mentioning that each of the over 20million residents of the state generate a minimum of 0.65kg, averaging 13,000 metric tonnes, he said the state requires not less than 650 heavy-duty trucks to evacuate the wastes.
He mentioned that while the number of PSP trucks operating in the state have been upscaled under the present Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu led administration from about 627 to over 1,100, higher than those of New York, about 150 of which are operated by LAWMA.
He, however, said to keep the operators afloat, the State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has reached conclusion to make fuel subsidy arrangements for the operators, which according to him, was to cushion the impacts of high cost of diesel biting hard on operators.
Efforts, he said, have been put in place for enhanced waste management system which include encouraging local content; introducing CNG powered trucks; construction of sanitary landfill; discussion over developing waste to energy facilities; construction of brand new landfills; construction of additional transfer loading stations for every local government, and recycling of waste.
Others are back-to-back night operations from 11:00pm-4:00pm; efforts focused on markets; additional reforms for operation enhancement; monitoring performance of PSP operators.
In his remarks, the Chairman, Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria, Mr. David Oriyomi, assured Lagosians that with the support of the state government, efforts would be harmonised to address the prevailing challenges, particularly those relating to exchange rate and rising diesel price which have informed high cost of operation.
