Lagos wasting time over battle with refuse
generally opposed to that initiative, we need to make that very clear for very simple reasons. One, it is excluding so many people - waste pickers from the dump sites are pushed out, the so-called new buyers are engaging OPC thugs to inflict violence on those waste pickers. I don’t want to talk so much about that.
“Refuse is all over the place because you are giving one company the responsibility of picking up the wastes all over every household in Lagos State. That kind of extreme overcentralization cannot work because waste picking essentially is a localized thing. Even in the best of times under the old system, there were communities even in the informal settlements that were not being reached by the PSP operators. And that is where the issue of cart pushers comes in because those communities still have to find some means of disposing their wastes and it was within that context that we define the relevance of cart pushers.
“So we have to recognize that they are providing useful service otherwise people dump refuse where it is not supposed to be dumped and we all end up with flooding because every cause has its consequence.
“You know it can’t work, it won’t work and already it is quite apparent that it is not working because we have heaps of refuse all over the place.”
Determined to end the impasse, Visionscape entered into agreement with the PSP operators to find a lasting solution.
In the new arrangement, the PSP will return to their role as residential waste collectors while Visionscape will oversee the waste management reforms. As part of implementing the new plan, Visionscape has refurbished three dilapidated transfer loading stations previously managed by LAWMA at Simpson, Agege and Oshodi.
In addition, the waste management company is currently facilitating the completion of an Engineered Sanitary Landfill in Epe which is currently used as an alternative to the Olusosun dumpsite, which caught fire recently, leading to its shut-down.
A source privy to the discussion said, “The state government is really worried with the present impasse and it is doing everything possible to resolve this temporary challenge. No doubt, we have a good intention in institutionalize a system of transforming wastes to wealth but unfortunately this good intention of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is being misconstrued.
“We also suspect sabotage in the way the state is littered with refuse. Those who are bent on frustrating the Cleaner Lagos Initiative are obviously conspiring to frustrate the programme but we are also determined to do everything possible to pull it through working in concert with relevant stakeholders”.
The source said as of now, the status quo remains as the hitherto protesting PSP operators have returned to their normal duty.
Though the agreement between the PSP operators and Visionscape was gentlemanly enough, all is still not well with the situation as expressed by the latter during their meeting with the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who has been rumoured to be the brain behind Visionscape.
However, Tinubu took the opportunity of the visit of the PSP operators to clear himself of the widespread speculation.
“I beg to correct something and I think I have to do it publicly; the rumour I’ve heard all over the state and the social media is that I am the one who brought a foreign company. I am not the owner of Visionscape. Categorically, I’m telling you today, I have no penny,” he said.
He added, “Personally, I think Visionscape was brought in to address
In the new arrangement, the PSP will return to their role as residential waste collectors while Visionscape will oversee the waste management reforms. As part of implementing the new plan, Visionscape has refurbished three dilapidated transfer loading stations previously managed by LAWMA at Simpson, Agege and Oshodi
the complexities of waste collection and management in the state.
“It could be an experiment and I’m sure the governor too will be magnanimous enough to reverse such a decision if it’s not working”.
But with Tinubu distancing himself from the initiative, the question remains whether the governor will take a second look at Visionscape or redesign the entire architecture of the programme even as the state remains a haven for heaps of filth.
The Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti, has assured that the challenges being experienced with the waste management system would be a thing of the past in no distant time.
“Very soon, Lagos will be very clean. We are working hard in partnership with all stakeholders to ensure we address the challenges. Both the government and the residents will jointly address the challenges and with Visionscape and the Private Sector Participation operators working together, the challenges will soon be over.
“In another one month before the rainy season, it will be over. We know that the rainy season is fast approaching and we are also preparing, but I will like to say that soon, the challenges will be surmounted,” he said.