World Cleanup Day: LAWMA canvasses cleaner environment for Lagos

By Olanrewaju Adesanya

Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has reiterated the need for residents to support government’s efforts at establishing a cleaner and healthier environment in the state, on the occasion of this year’s World Cleanup Day.

According to the Managing Director of LAWMA, Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin,in a release by the Assistant Director Public Affairs, Mrs Folashade Kadiri, this year’s event provides the opportunity for people to have a rethink on how they treat their environment, considering the negative implications of improper waste disposal.

He said: “The World Cleanup Day is a global social action program aimed at combating the global solid waste problem and this is good a platform to remind our people of the negative consequences of indiscriminate waste dumping, which affects not only the environment, but the people that live in it”.

Dr. Gbadegesin noted that in line with Governor  Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s recent Executive Order on Traffic and Sanitation, the Authority had intensified efforts to clear notable black spots cross the state, especially along the Lagos Badagry Expressway – LASU/Okomaiko axis, with the overall aim of achieving zero waste policy and making the environment livable.

He said further that: “We are stepping up our operations to rid the state of black spots. Our aim is to establish cleaner and livable environment across the state. You will recall that the agency has rolled out various programs like “Lagos at 4am” and the “Blue Box” initiative, to promote recycling and waste sorting at source”.

The LAWMA boss revealed that efforts were ongoing to rehabilitate landfills in the state, to ensure that the roads leading to the sites were motorable all year round, to improve the turnaround time of waste evacuation trucks.

“Our landfills are undergoing rehabilitation to improve the turnaround time for waste evacuation, while the PSP operators are being supported to step up domestic waste collection”, he stated.

And to curb indiscriminate dumping on the road median, Dr.  Gbadegesin said the Authority had intensified its enforcement operations against all forms of improper waste disposal in the metropolis, with a clampdown on cart-pushers who engage in indiscriminate dumping on road medians, setbacks, canals and other unauthorized locations.

Dr. Gbadegesin appealed to residents to shun all forms of improper waste disposal methods, which could trigger flooding as the rains persist, adding that people should bag their waste appropriately and patronise only assigned PSP operators.

He commended all corporate organizations, volunteers, NGOs and recyclers which had partnered twith LAWMA on the occasion of this year’s World Cleanup Day and urged others to emulate them.