Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has tasked residents to keep their environment clean because a cleaner environment is what makes a city or a state sustainable

Speaking on Saturday during the August Environmental sanitation exercise in Amuwo Odofin Local Council, Sanwo-Olu, represented by the Deputy Governor, Dr Obafemi Kadril Hamzat, stated that the idea of the monthly environmental sanitation is to keep reminding the people about the importance of a clean environment to the individual and the society.

He added: “As you can see, as we are moving around, we are seeing the residents of Festac, everybody coming out to clean. And so the idea is to take care of ourselves. We cannot be a people without a healthy environment. So it doesn’t matter what we do.

“A cleaner environment is what makes a city a state sustainable. So that’s why we’re here.

As you know, we have been going around different locations monthly.

“And the summary is to make sure that across our state, we all come out to clean our environment at least once in a month.”

Sanwo-Olu implored the media to help the government to project the importance of residents and businesses keeping their environment clean.

“This is across the state so that people know that it’s important that we come out to clean and make sure that environment is clean for our children to live in.”

He stated that plans are already on to incorporate 250 new trucks to aid easy evacuation of waste from homes and offices.

According to him, the new vehicles would expand the state’s capacity to evacuate refuse and address areas where existing waste collection arrangements have struggled to cope with demand.

“The state government will be bringing in another 250 trucks to make sure that we supplement our PSP.”

He also urged residents to patronise accredited PSP operators rather than cart pushers, warning that the latter often operate outside the regulated waste management system.

“What we need our people to also do is to make sure that they patronise their PSP, not the cart pushers, because they are not organised. You don’t know where the waste is ending up,” he said.

Sanwo-Olu linked the growing waste challenge to Lagos’ expanding population, noting that the influx of people into the state inevitably increases the volume of refuse generated daily.

“A lot of people are coming to Lagos, and therefore they generate waste. So part of what you can see that we are doing is that we are getting many more trucks to actually go and evacuate,” he said.

He stressed, however, that government investment alone would not solve the waste problem without residents taking responsibility for proper disposal.

Also speaking, the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, stated that the government is not relenting in ensuring the state is clean and cleared of heap of refuse dumped on the medians.

He said that part of that efforts is the fixing of some of the roads within the landfill in Olusosun that the PSP operators complained about. He also said that the ministry has done a substantial work.

He added that the state government is in a transiting period where the goal going forward is to turn waste to wealth through massively converting and recycling all the waste generated from homes and factories.

According to Wahab, efforts are on to get additional trucks for PSP operators to improve their capacity. He however implored residents to pay for services rendered by PSP operators to motivate them to deliver and do better.

Also, the Head of Service, Bode Agoro, monitored the exercise in Bariga Local Council Development Area, LCDA, alongside other Permanent Secretaries, including the Permanent Secretary, Office of Environmental Services, Omobolaji Gaji.

The officials inspected Ewenla, Adetoke and Emmanuel Church streets, through Omobokun to New Garage, as part of efforts to assess compliance and encourage residents to maintain clean surroundings.

Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Public Service Office, Sunkanmi Oyegbola, Agoro expressed concern over the attitude of some residents towards environmental cleanliness and urged Lagosians to take ownership of their immediate environment.

Agoro stressed that environmental cleanliness should not be left entirely to government, noting that residents have a responsibility to complement the state’s efforts by keeping their homes, streets and communities clean.

He added that while the government continues to provide infrastructure and other facilities to support the development of Lagos, residents are expected to reciprocate by protecting and maintaining those facilities and ensuring a clean environment.