Lagos State government yesterday charged residents with imbibing a good attitude toward waste management and disposal to achieve a sustainable environment. 
Speaking while on a Television interview programme about the viral insinuation of a smelly city, the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab, said proper waste disposal culture is an intentional behaviour that must be adhered to by all concerned.
 
Wahab said most cosmopolitan cities around the world have specific areas that emit offensive odours, such as New York, Beijing, and London.According to him, Lagos is no exception. He added that such offensive odours are experienced around the landfill sites at Olusosun in Ojota and Solous 3 in the Igando area.
 
“If you stay around or drive past Olusosun, Solous 3, or other landfills and perceive some offensive odours, does that mean the whole of Lagos is smelling? So, ‘Lagos is smelling’ is a political tool and to set the record straight, Lagos is not smelling but evolving,” he said. 
 
The commissioner said Lagos generates between 13,000 and 14,000 tonnes of waste daily, meaning that it has creatively proffered ways to reduce the quantum of waste that ends up at the Landfill sites.
 
“We have a waste to wealth arrangement, where organic waste becomes composite fertilizers, and plastics waste recycled.
 
“All these are to encourage Lagosians to build a proper waste disposal culture as done in other climes.
 
“Approach taken by government in waste management include converting between 4,000 and 5,000 tonnes of waste daily to wealth, 2,500 tonnes converted to energy, 4,000 to 5,000 converted to fuel for LAMATA buses, and Lafarge company taking a chunk of the combustible wastes converted to power for their factory.
 
“The long-term plan is to have less than 1,000 tonnes ending up at the Landfill daily,” he said. Wahab said the state is in the process of de-commissioning dumpsites at Olusosun and Soulous 3, adding that the approach of waste segregation from waste generated will go a long way to minimise the number of wastes that will end up at the landfill sites .
 
He explained that for almost two decades, the state government has enabled the private sector into the waste collection process with the State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), as the regulator.
 
He stated that some challenges are experienced in the process as homeowners always want to circumvent the payment system, thereby engaging in illegal waste disposal.

“If the Private Sector Participation (PSP) operators are not efficient in your area, please call LAWMA; they are empowered with over 200 trucks to intervene in the interim as a stop gap to cart away waste and later investigate the operation of the designated PSP operator,” he said.
 
The commissioner said the state is continually ramping up its advocacy campaign to educate homeowners and market leaders. According to him, the campaign, when necessary, will include the arrest and prosecution of offenders in accordance with the environmental laws of the state.
 
“Recently, I led advocacy campaigns to Idumota, Oyingbo and Oke-Arin markets to educate our market women that they have to change and do things differently.
 
“I advised that they must display their wares responsibly in the allocated space and not on our drainage channels,” he said. He stated that the state government has deepened its collaboration and relationship with the Local Governments to ensure that they carry out their responsibility of cleaning market spaces and tertiary drains, while the state is responsible for the cleaning and maintenance of the Primary and Secondary Channels to ensure a flood-free Lagos.
 
He stressed that the government had moved to clean up the Berger end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Oshodi, where individuals were found openly defecating on the road medians, causing a stench in these areas.
 
He added that apart from cleaning up the spaces, sanitation enforcement officers were deployed to arrest recalcitrant offenders.  He stated that the ministry constantly consults with officials of the National Road Transport Workers (NURTW) to ensure that functional public toilets exist in all motor parks and to also educate their members and motorists to use those toilets.
 
“People are used to doing things in a certain way, and it will take a while to change this orientation and behaviour in people.

“And to do this, you must have a strong advocacy campaign and an enforcement plan. That is what we are committed to,” he said. He disclosed that a total of 1,710 public toilets exist in the state with an additional 150 new ones currently being worked on, adding that every filling station and eatery are compelled to allow people to use their toilet facility to curb the open defecation menace. 
 
“All we require from our citizens is just to blow the whistle about people that engage in environmental infractions. 
 
“I would like residents to also know that the government will frown at any person that is found to use the whistleblowing approach to witch hunt others”, he said.
 
Wahab also said the present administration is determined to provide potable water to every nook and cranny of the state with the ongoing laying of water pipes from the Ogun River to Adiyan II.
 
The project, he said, is estimated to provide 70 million gallons of drinkable water daily in addition to the 30 million being supplied by the already existing waterworks.  He, thereafter, encouraged everyone to collaborate with the government to ensure that a healthy environment is achieved and sustained.
 
“I want to appeal to all residents to be friendly with nature and be rest assured that the government would not drop the ball.
 
“We shall continually be responsive and responsible to you in the ministry as well as all our agencies. Be rest assured we are available and willing to always assist,” he said.