The Managing Director/CEO of Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Mr. Ibrahim Odumboni, has called on residents to support efforts of the Authority to rid the environment of filth by paying their waste bills promptly.
Odumboni said payment for waste services is very crucial to achieving the State’s vision of establishing a cleaner and liveable environment, adding that no one is exempted from paying waste bills, regardless of occupation or societal status.
His words: “We want to appeal to all residents to make it a duty to pay their waste bills. This is very important because service providers’ operations rely heavily on people paying for waste services. As a matter of fact, nobody is exempted from this, including civil servants”.
“For the sake of emphasis, no section of the Civil Service Rules exempts government workers from paying for services rendered by PSP operators. This applies to every other profession. We must take responsibility for the change we want to see in our environment. Anyone caught dumping indiscriminately under the guise of belonging to a particular profession would be made to face the wrath of the law”, he said.
The LAWMA boss reiterated the Authority’s commitment to ensuring that every part of the metropolis is properly sanitised, adding that the agency had stepped up efforts to rid the environment of waste backlog, through intensive morning and night operations.
Odumboni said: “We deploy thousands of sweepers and waste collection trucks daily, across major routes in the city, as well as ensure that waste generated by tenements is taken care of by PSP operators. We want to assure Lagosians that we will not relent on our efforts to make the environment cleaner and healthier for all”.
According to him, the Authority is also working with other sister agencies, such as Neighbourhood Watch and Motor Vehicle Administration Agency (MVAA), to check waste migration, a situation where some residents move wastes generated at home in their vehicles and dump while transiting to another point.
The CEO called on the populace to embrace the culture of recycling and waste sorting from the source which, apart from saving the environment from plastic pollution, has numerous economic benefits.
He admonished residents to always bag and containerise their waste while waiting for the arrival of assigned PSP operators, maintaining that the practice of waste containerisation would eventually help curb littering and indiscriminate refuse disposal around the city.