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Fashola Inaugurates Lawma Board, Calls For Proper Waste Disposal

Apr 14, 2008 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Monday inaugurated a nine-member Governing Board for the State’s Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) with a call on Lagosians and corporate organisations operating in the State to ensure proper disposal of their wastes.

The Board, headed by Dr. Taofeek Oladiran Folami, has Dr. Omosule Samuel Adeleye as Vice Chairman, Prince Murphy Adetoro, Hon. Adewale Odunlami, Barr. (Mrs.) Derin Disu and Dr. (Mrs.) Titi Anibaba as members.

Other members include Mr. Ola Oresanya, Mr. M.A. Abass and Mr. Kemi Shobowale.

Speaking at a brief ceremony at the Conference Room of the Governor’s Office, Fashola outlined the duties of the Board to include, ensuring the cleaning of streets, collection and disposal of domestic, commercial and individual waste, removal and disposal of abandoned and scrap vehicles, removal and disposal of carcass of dead animals from public places and preparing and updating, from time to time, the Master Plans for waste collection and disposal in the cities, towns and villages in the State as well as control resultant waste system within the State.

Other responsibilities include making provision for waste management services to state agencies, local governments, industries, business entities and private persons within the State by receiving waste at the Authority’s facilities pursuant to contract agreement between the authority and such other party and issuing, reviewing and revoking license of private waste collectors.

The Governor stated that with the Board in place, his administration was taking a significant step forward and consolidating on the waste management policies it inherited from its predecessor in office which, according to him, has been reviewed “as appropriate”.

Fashola said the review has resulted in tremendous improvement on the state of the environment in the State as a Mega-City.

“Lagos is relatively cleaner now, though it can be much cleaner and we are currently working hard to achieve zero tolerance for indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the State”, he said.

The Governor said as part of the efforts at improving upon the state of the environment in the State, his administration has procured additional three Tana Landfill compactors for landfill/dumpsites, embarked on rehabilitation of three major landfill sites at Olusosun, Soulos and Abule-Egba and evacuation of refuse backlog at illegal dumpsites located in various areas in the State.

Other projects and strategies “geared towards achieving efficient waste management system”, the Governor said, include creation of more Transfer Loading Stations, review of the operation of Private Sector Participation (PSP) in the waste collection and intensive day/night sweeping.

“All these and many other strategies have been put in place to ensure proper sanitary landfill practices consistent with international standard in environmental management”, Fashola said, adding that apart from providing jobs through public private partnership, street surveying initiative, waste to compost and many more, his administration also procured one hundred additional waste management trucks in its effort to ensure cleaner environment.

He said the decision to appoint the Board was borne out of the fact that, as a mega-city, the volume of waste generated on a daily bases was enormous and needed highly skilled professionals with cognate experience to effectively guide the affairs of LAWMA.

Urging the Board members to see their appointment as a call to service and a sensitive one, the Governor, who said they had no choice but to succeed, enjoined them to bring their wealth of experience to bear on their new assignment.

He declares, “To whom much is given, much is expected”, pointing out that the challenges of waste management in a densely populated State as Lagos were enormous.