Lagos Waste Management collaborates with community on waste policing
Luqmon Balogun, Lagos
Lagos Waste Management Authority LAWMA has reiterated its commitment to stop all forms of indiscriminate waste disposal in the state.
The agency also promised to forge collaboration with various stakeholders, especially community leaders in order to address the environment menace.
The Managing Director/CEO LAWMA, Mr. Ibrahim Odumboni, who gave this indication said that the Authority had improved on waste policing activities across various communities, by strategically positioning personnel on ground, to monitor the environment.
“The task of achieving a cleaner and livable environment is one that requires the involvement of all stakeholders. This is why we are working with community leaders to stamp out improper waste disposal, which has exposed our environment and people living in it, to various hazards”. he said
Odumboni explained that LAWMA’s enforcement team had embarked on a comprehensive statewide campaign, to arrest and prosecute those bent on causing environmental degradation in the metropolis, and derailing efforts of the Authority towards attaining a sustainable environment in the state.
According to him “Our enforcement team has been made visible across various communities. They ensure total compliance with the environment laws of the state, arresting defaulters and the outlawed cart pushers in the process. Business facilities known to have contravened the laws are also being sealed off, to serve as deterrent to others”.
The LAWMA boss also charged Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area of Lagos on community waste policing, for clean and sustainable environment, while urging residents of the area, to imbibe positive attitude change towards their surroundings.
He stated that community waste policing would create employment opportunities for the youths in the council, and would also forestall indiscriminate dumping of waste on roads medians and other unauthorised locations, as the youths monitored identified black spots across the council area.
“Community waste policing is a sure way to sustain good waste management. It is also a means of youth empowerment and revenue generation. So I urge the council lawmakers to examine their bylaws and do the needful”, he stressed.
Mr. Odumboni highlighted the environmental and economic benefits of recycling and waste separation at source, noting that the process would reduce the volume of wastes reaching the landfills, while also creating jobs.
He however called on residents to cooperate with the Authority by bagging and containerising their waste, as well as patronising assigned Private
operators, whose job is to evacuate waste generated by tenements, stressing that the task of keeping the environment clean is a collective one.
