NAN-AE-6
Waste
By Chidinma Agu
Lagos, Nov. 8, 2016 (NAN) The Lagos State Government has announced plans to reform its waste management system by 2017, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The State’s Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Babatunde Adejare, on Tuesday disclosed government’s decision to review its waste management system in an interview with NAN in Lagos.
According to him, the reform will come with innovative packages including investment in use of tricycles for waste disposal.
“The Government is taking a holistic view of the way waste collection and disposal is being run in the State.
“This is aimed at making waste management in the State efficient and effective.
“The reform will accommodate all the relevant stakeholders in waste collection and disposal no matter how unrecognised their contributions had been over the years.
“Households will also be made to be responsive and responsible for efficient waste collection and disposal,” he said.
Adejare told NAN that the reform would recognise barrow and truck pushers, who collect refuse from houses and make them accountable for their actions.
He said the idea was to stop the situation where they would collect refuse from homes and dumped them on road sides, isolated places or drainage channels.
Adejare said that the reform package would end the current situation where a majority of Lagos residents, tenants and landlords failed to pay waste bills.
He said that maintaining a clean environment was important as no nation prospered in a distressed and degraded environment.
He also restated the state government’s position on sustainable environment, adding that Gov. Akinwumi Ambode’s administration was also planning to invest in the use of tricycle for waste disposal.
According to him, the tricycles will, in no small measure, assist in waste collection and disposal in the state because of their ability to navigate difficult terrain.
Adejare said that once the government was able to sort out issues of waste management less garbage would be found in the state’s drainage. (NAN)
ACA/DOE/AFA
Edited by Dianabasi Effiong/Felix Ajide
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