The Managing Director/CEO of the Lagos Waste Management Authority, (LAWMA), Mr. Ibrahim Odumboni has charged residents of Apapa and its environs, on pro-active steps towards ridding the environment of illegal dumpsites, and total eradication of reckless waste disposal practices.
He also urged them to raise a formidable waste policing team, to enforce that objective.
Odumboni gave the charge at Apapa Local Government Secretariat, Apapa, at an inaugural stakeholders’ meeting and public sensitization with residents and other stakeholders, scheduled to take place in all the 57 Local Governments and LCDAs of the state.
The LAWMA boss said the time had come for the Authority to engage with residents and all stakeholders, to rid the council of filth and enthrone a new regime of cleanliness and sustainable environment.
“The chairman of Apapa Local Government has been at the front burner of ensuring that this council gets rid of indiscriminate waste disposal. We will start by ensuring that a transfer loading station is sited at Apapa, once the Council Chairman can provide us with a land for that purpose for easy evacuation of waste by PSP operators. This will increase the turn around time and improve the aesthetics of the Local Government and environs.
The operators in Apapa would adjust to a convenient timing, preferably at night for now, to cart away refuse, due to the persistent traffic gridlock in this area. Residents and shop owners should also reciprocate by ensuring prompt payment of waste bills. It is important to facilitate smooth running of the operations of the PSPs”, he said.
“It is high time the community incorporated local policing to checkmate the activities of cart pushers prevalent in Apapa. Ibeju-Lekki and Epe Local Governments have done this successfully. You can achieve this too by engaging your youths to man specific areas, notorious for cart pushing business, to arrest the perpetrators. This is the way to go”, he concluded.
The LAWMA Managing Director, also enjoined the people to shun indiscriminate dumping into canals and drainage channels, encouraging residents to key into recycling, by separating their waste at source, to make additional income.
In her earlier remarks, the Chairman of Apapa Local Government, Hon. Mrs. Idowu Sebanjo, lauded the effort of LAWMA for frontally confronting the menace of sundry environmental infractions in the council, promising that all needed support would be given by her council, to return the disappeared aesthetics and allure of that metropolitan community.
Also speaking, the Ojora of Ijora, Oba Fatai Aromire, represented by Baale of Apapa, Mr. Akeem Obara, lauded the Authority’s efforts towards ensuring a cleaner environment, noting that the stakeholders meeting, was a call to action long overdone.
He implored the stakeholders to be more environment conscious, especially market women, to own a bin for waste containerization, pleading with the PSPs to make waste tariff convenient for residents for easy compliance.
Various stakeholders took turns to x-ray the situation and challenges, all concluding with a promise, to work towards achieving the ultimate objective of a clean and alluring Apapa Local Government.
Also in attendance were the Vice Chairman, Apapa Local Governmment, Alhaji Ganiu Ismail; Apapa APC Chairman, Alhaji Fatai Sanni; Executive Director of LAWMA; Mr, Kunle Adebiyi; senior management staff of the Authority; the PSP operators assigned to the axis; market leaders; CDA/CDC executives and other dignitaries.
*Folashade Kadiri*
Director, Public Affairs
LAWMA
