‘It’s been very bad’ — Tokunbo Wahab apologises to Lagos residents for waste evacuation lapse

Tokunbo Wahab, Lagos commissioner for environment and water resources, has apologised to residents over recurring waste evacuation lapse in the state.

The mea culpa comes as heaps of refuse litter roads and drainage channels across the metropolis, with many residents taking to social media to criticise the state government for delays in evacuation.

In some areas, residents have complained that it takes weeks for waste to be collected, leading to concerns over public health and environmental sanitation.

Speaking on Friday during ‘The Morning Show’, an Arise TV programme, Wahab acknowledged that waste collection had been “very bad” in the past three to four months.

“Let me start by apologising to Lagosians. The past three, four months have been very bad with respect to waste collection, but we didn’t just get there overnight,” he said.

“I won’t play the ostrich by not admitting we had a challenge. Are we fixing it? Yes.”

The commissioner said the state government is already addressing the challenge and implementing long-term reforms to improve waste management.

The worsening refuse situation had prompted Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, to direct round-the-clock evacuation of waste across the state in a bid to clear refuse heaps on roads and other public spaces.

Wahab said Lagos can no longer sustain its decades-old waste disposal model of simply collecting and dumping refuse at landfill sites.

According to him, rapid urbanisation around major landfill sites such as Olusosun and Solous has made the existing system unsustainable.

“For decades, we had practised a linear waste system. We just pick waste and we dump. Olusosun and Solous were the outskirts of Lagos. We all went to build around them,” he said.

“We can’t sustain that. We don’t even have the land. If our total land mass is 0.4 percent of the country’s land mass, 3,355 square kilometres of land, it shows we must think outside the box.”

The commissioner said the state would be transitioning from a “pick-and-dump” approach to a circular waste economy that treats waste as a resource.

He cited recent investments in waste-to-energy initiatives, including a biodigester facility at the Ecocircuit centre, which converts food waste to energy.

Wahab added that the state is also developing a larger waste-to-energy facility expected to process about 4,250 tonnes of waste daily.

In April, the Lagos government returned the monthly environmental sanitation exercise, after a decade-long hiatus.

The state-wide clean-up exercise resumed 10 years after it was halted in November 2016 following a court ruling. (TheCable)