Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has declared what he described as a “small state of emergency” on waste management across the state.
Sanwo-Olu made the declaration on Wednesday during an inspection of the Olusosun dumpsite in Ojota, Lagos, alongside his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat, and the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab.
The governor said the state had experienced increasing pressure on waste collection in recent weeks, leading to indiscriminate dumping of refuse in several parts of the metropolis.
He said the government’s immediate priority was to restore efficient waste collection and disposal, while implementing medium- and long-term measures to address the problem.
According to him, the state is working to increase the daily capacity of the Olusosun dumpsite from between 250 and 350 trucks to between 350 and 450 trucks by increasing the number of tipping points from two or three to about four or five.
Sanwo-Olu said similar interventions would be undertaken at Solu 3, Iwulepe in Ikorodu and Oke-Osho in Epe, while Erikitte in Badagry would also be developed.
He expressed optimism that within six weeks, Lagos would have five active waste disposal sites to reduce the time trucks spend waiting to discharge refuse.
The governor also announced the procurement of 160 new compactor trucks by the state government to strengthen waste collection from homes and roads to disposal facilities.
He added that Zoomlion would procure additional compactors, while the government would acquire landfill compactors to improve operations at disposal sites.
On longer-term solutions, Sanwo-Olu disclosed that two 2,400-metric-tonne transfer loading stations were being developed at Olusosun and Solu 3.
The facilities, he said, would receive compacted waste before transferring it to material recovery facilities planned for Oke-Osho in Epe and Erikitte in Badagry.
He said the transfer stations were expected to handle about 500 trucks daily, while the material recovery facilities would enable the state to sort and convert waste into useful materials.
The governor also announced plans to review the operations of Private Sector Participants in the waste management sector, saying only operators with the capacity and technical expertise to deliver effective services should remain.
“We do not want to have 800 PSPs when only 400 are effective. We need to purge the system and create space for more investors and people who have the capacity to come in,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu also appealed to residents to pay for waste collection services, stressing that service providers could not continue operating without receiving payment.
He assured Lagos residents that the government and PSP operators would work together to improve waste management and restore cleaner communities across the state.