Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Wednesday declared what he described as a “small state of emergency” on waste management in the state, as his administration moved to tackle mounting refuse collection and disposal challenges across the metropolis
Sanwo-Olu spoke after inspecting the Olusosun dumpsite, where he said the state had been experiencing pressure on waste collection and indiscriminate disposal in different parts of Lagos.
“We’ve seen the pressure of the turnaround of waste collection in different parts of the city. We’ve seen a challenge of people throwing waste indiscriminately in different parts of the city,” the governor said.
He said the state had introduced monthly sanitation exercises and intensified advocacy on waste management, but acknowledged that efforts to coordinate waste disposal had not been sufficiently effective.
“So we’re here for ourselves to see what is the problem, what is happening, and for us to clearly be able to declare what we will call a small state of emergency, just so that we can get out of this very unpleasant situation,” he said.
The governor said the immediate plan was to increase the capacity of Olusosun to receive waste, noting that the facility currently receives between 250 and 350 trucks daily.
He said the government was working to increase the number to between 350 and 450 trucks by expanding tipping points from the current two or three to four or five.
Sanwo-Olu also announced plans to make additional disposal sites operational within the coming weeks to reduce the pressure on Olusosun.
According to him, Solu 3 in Alimosho currently requires road stabilisation to improve access, with the work expected to begin at the weekend and be completed within two to three weeks.
He added that stabilisation work would also be carried out at Iwulepe in Ikorodu and Oke Osho in Epe.
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