LAWMA Canvasses Cleaner Environment For Lagos

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 while it joined the rest of the world to mark the 2019 ‘World Cleanup Day’.

According to the Managing Director of LAWMA, Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin, 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 programme 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 the recent Executive Order on Traffic and Sanitation, the Authority had intensified efforts to clear notable black spots across the State, especially along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway – LASU/Okokomaiko 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 a cleaner and livable environment across the State. You will recall that the agency has rolled out various programmes like “Lagos at 4 am” and the “Blue Box” initiative, to promote recycling and waste sorting at source”.

The LAWMA boss revealed that efforts were ongoing to rehabilitate landfills to ensure that the roads leading to the sites were motorable all year round as well as 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.

On the need to curb indiscriminate dumping on road medians, 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 unauthorised locations.

He, therefore, 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.

While commending all corporate organisations, volunteers, NGOs and recyclers who partnered with LAWMA on the occasion of the 2019 World Cleanup Day, the LAWMA boss urged all residents to call the LAWMA toll-free lines 07080601020 and 617 for inquiries and complaints.