Lagos EnvironmentAnd Public Health

The waste reengineering processes which commenced in 2005, at the tailend of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, through Governor Fashola’s tenure, was quite successful to a large extent in changing the face at the environment in the ‘Centre of Excellence’.

Like an Eagle, the Akinwunmi Ambode administration decided to rejuvenate the system.

This is partly what gave birth to the promulgation of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Law 2017, which established the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, concessionaire domestic waste, street sweeping and landfill management services, while the Private Sector Participants (PSPs) retain commercial waste collection services. The law equally delegated oversight of waste management sector to the Ministry of the Environment (MOE), Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and Public Utilities Monitoring and Assurance Unit (PUMAU).

To ensure holistic waste management services with local import, whilst also meeting the state’s policy on employment, the government, through the group’s partner, Messrs Visionscape Nigeria, employed 27,000 community services workers for street sweeping, partnered local truck manufacturers and builders, as well as interested local waste-management companies and commenced the process of integrating certified waste operators through its association, in order to widen the level of collaborative waste collection and employment.

Waste management is a collective responsibility of government and residents with worthy principal being prepared to set the pace. To induce public and corporate participation, therefore, the government had to introduce covered waste collection bins for households, commercial properties, roads and streets wastes, and distributed some onto the highways, under the tenement and public-waste collection arrangement. This is with a view to capturing, at different levels, solid and flight wastes, prevent indiscriminate waste dumping, prevent stench and odour, guarantee aesthetics for the environment and, confer good health and reduced mortality-rate of the state, its indigenes and visitors, alike.

Governance is a social contract between government and the governed. Hence, committing public fund into the environment is to challenge the general public and corporate bodies towards responsible waste disposal; as they owe the society and its environment that responsibility, of cooperating and ensuring proper patronage and adequate usage of the waste facilities, under the social contact.

The success of any institution resides more in the viability of its human and material resources, just as promotion of a clean, aesthetic and healthy environment is strategic to attaining sound and sustainable health for the people. And, except mutual collaboration is deliberately and jointly ensured by all the stakeholders in the environment, improper management of waste could rob-off negatively on the people’s lifespan.

In fact, it could lead to public-health issues, which could give birth to epidemics, ill-health and death. It is, thus, imperative that all stakeholders, namely government, residents, corporate bodies, visitors, NGOs, CDA/CDC, the media and general public, should lend a hand and cooperate with each other in the management of the waste stream, including marine waste; in the interest of the health and wellbeing of people and the society.

Instructively, every individual resident and corporate body owe the society and its environment the responsibility to monitor and do away with “the not in my backyard syndrome”; as such would not only complement government monitoring, but would help to eradicate indiscriminate waste dumping, prevent emergence of waste blackspots within the community and guarantee good health for all, including visitors.

It will equally reduce mortality or death rate, bequeath an aesthetic environment and ensure a better tomorrow for the children. We equally owe the society and the environment adequate and prompt payment for services, in order to ensure maintenance and sustainability of infrastructure provided for the welfare of indigenes, corporate bodies and visitors to the state. The implication is that any support, collaboration or cooperation given to the government in the management of the environment, especially in the area of waste collection and disposal, is a collaboration and cooperation with our health, our life and our future.

For the environment to adequately reflect the enormous government investment on it, both the government and the governed must be mutually involved. Japan did not get to the enviable position of having the cleanest cities in the world by leaving the business of environmental rehabilitation to the government alone. No! It really began when Japanese began to take responsibility over their environment.

Hence, with the needed discipline and conscious determination, we could also turn most of our environment into a clean haven. This could begin with a simple habit of not throwing dirt in unauthorised places. It could be as simple as not urinating in public places. It could also be as simple as not patronising illicit waste disposal agents. It could be as simple as not turning parks and gardens into cattle ranches or party spots.