New waste management Act’ll attract deep pocket investors to Lagos State—SA

Few weeks after the signing into law, the new State Environmental Management and Protection Law, the Lagos State Government has said it is designed to provide investment opportunities for residents and to some extent, foreign investors.

This was the submission of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Civic Engagement, Kehinde Joseph. In an interview, he said the law was designed to holistically address the challenges of waste management in the state and create opportunities for more people with the capacity to mobilise resources and participate in refuse management in the state.

According to him, time has come for residents to support the novel approach to waste management in the state, saying the Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, aimed to innovatively tackle the challenge of waste disposal headlong so as to ensure cleaner and healthier Lagos.

“Lagos as a megacity with a population of about 22 million requires a dynamic approach, which will involve the residents and the waste management consortium playing their assigned roles effectively in the waste management efforts of the state.

“The new law is not a threat to existing waste managers; rather, it opens a window of opportunity for more people to come into the different levels of waste collection and disposal. Several thousands of hands will be absorbed into the system, thereby reducing unemployment level in the state.”

Joseph further maintained that residents should begin to see the new approach to environmental management as an opportunity to achieve a sustainable, clean and healthy environment, which would in turn impact positively on their health status, adding that the monthly environmental sanitation was cancelled to give way for the new initiative.