On Saturday, January 13th of this year, the Secretary to the Lagos State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello, read out the riot act to cart pushers and wheel barrow operators within the state. Bello, on behalf of the state government, declared without equivocation that the activities of these people were banned. The SSG said the government was concerned that the activities of the cart pushers and wheel barrow operators were inimical to the environmental cleanliness of Lagos. He stated that since government had flagged off the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI), it was necessary to put a stop to the wantonness of the cart pushers. Bello maintained that investigations had shown that the cart pushers were responsible for most of the illegal dumping of waste in canals and road medians at night. “What the state government has discovered is that these people use the night to perpetrate all sorts of dastardly acts. They dump refuse indiscriminately on the medians of major roads and highways,” Bello said.
Bello stated the state government was concerned that the wheel barrow operators constituted a security risk. Hear him: “ They also pose serious security threats because they use those carts to hide arms and ammunition under the guise of carrying refuse to rob unsuspecting residents.” No well-meaning citizen can fault the outright ban on the activities of the cart pushers for the Akinwunmi Ambode-led government has gone to great lengths to make sure that its dream of ensuring a cleaner Lagos becomes a reality. It was this dream that precipitated the need to fashion a new environmental management policy, which is known as the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI). With the CLI, the state government is working towards a city that is flood free. It is also dreaming that Lagos would become one of the cleanest cities in the world. Hence, Governor Ambode in 2017 signed into law a new legislation called the Environmental Management Protection Law.
The law is to limit government’s role to waste regulation. The waste management part has been left for an environmental utility company, Visionscape Sanitation Services Limited (VSS) to handle. The VSS, a multinational company has a reputation for rendering innovative environmental solutions. It is known for using cutting-edge technologies and tools to address the environmental needs of large cities, among others. Among places that the VSS has commercial operations around the world are Dubai, the United Kingdom and Canada. Given its reputation as a leader in the environmental utility sector and its famed technical soundness, no well meaning member of the society can fault the Lagos State Government for granting a 10-year franchise to Visionscape to handle the waste management of the state.
The contract signed by Visionscape was to initially handle the waste in residential areas. But this did not go down well with the PSP operators who had been in charge of waste management in the state. They dragged the state government to the court. The matter lasted in the court for a year until the parties in the suit reached an out-of court settlement. While the matter went on in court, the resources of Visionscape which were initially meant for collecting domestic waste had to be stretched because they were also deployed for managing commercial waste in public areas that had been abandoned by the PSPs. Now, it is a good development that the bickering has stopped.
There is now a new arrangement. Old PSP operators are being absorbed into the CLI once they meet the recertification criteria to determine their functionality and performance. They are now called Waste Collectors (WCOs) and Lagos State now has over 400 approved waste collection operators. They will concentrate on collecting commercial waste from schools, churches, industries, hospitals and other businesses, while Visionscape will focus on residential waste collection in the state. Recently, in a published advertorial which is aimed at further cementing the cracked wall with the PSPs, Visionscape sought to incorporate PSPs by calling for Expression of Interest (EOI)) for the short haul transportation of municipal solid waste within Lagos state. According to the advertorial, the scope of activities will include the transportation of municipal solid waste from the Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) and commercial markets across the state to designated transfer loading stations and landfills.
To underscore the readiness of Visionscape to fulfill its mandate, its CEO, John Irvine, in a recent interview granted a national newspaper articulated a roadmap at the end of which he said Lagos residents would be able to appreciate the CLI initiative fully. “In the (waste management) industry, this period is usually 18 months and it has stages which include mobilisation which is for 3-4 months, stabilisation (3-4 months) and the augmentation (3-4 months)”. He assured the people that his company, working with other stakeholders, would rid Lagos of waste, positing that usually in the first cycle which is the stage Lagos is at the moment, service delivery takes longer because of the integration stage. He assured that VSS had developed coherent education plan which would promote waste management education among residents in Lagos State. It is therefore time for the Lagos State government to spare no effort in stemming this evil tide. The Ambode administration has achieved a lot in the sectors of education, infrastructure, health, culture, and among others.
Dada is a Lagos-based journalist.
END
Be the first to comment