Relying on a possible truce between the state government and its new sole waste manager, the Visionscope (driver of the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI) on one hand and the union of PSP operators on January 29, Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State on Saturday assured residents that waste deposited on major highways, residents and streets around the state fizzle out.
During the last hearing, lawyers to both parties had agreed out of court settlement, but is was not yet clear if part of the new settlement will incorporate PSP operators who had invested much in their businesses over the years.
The Governor spoke at the Lagos House, Ikeja after inaugurating the new board of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC).
The Corps are going to serve as taskforce in maintaining order especially in payment compliance and surveillance.
Represented by his Special Adviser on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh, Ambode averred that “the new waste management policy of government encapsulated in the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI) was designed to holistically address the challenges in the sector”.
“Let me assure the people that in the coming weeks, there will be improvement.
“We are already witnessing a high-level of improvement; we promise that throughout this week and throughout next week, people will see a marked improvement in our state as more equipment come into the country and we are able to deploy the equipment accordingly,” he said.
Ambode said enough officials of LAGESC, transformed from the former Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), had been employed to police all nooks and crannies of the state to curb indiscriminate dumping of waste.
He added further that “We are all living witnesses to the restructuring we are trying to do in the environmental sector.
“That restructuring culminated in the introduction of CLI, which is focused at ensuring that the way we clean Lagos is comparable to what is being done in first class cities in the world.
“As a result, we are changing the way the environment in Lagos is being managed, and to help us to achieve that, this Sanitation Corps is important.
“More importantly now is to speak to the fact that yes, we are having some challenges in the area of waste management in Lagos today.
“We all live in Lagos, but I want to reaffirm that we are doing everything to ensure that this becomes a thing of the past.
“Beyond the fact that we are clearing waste, the CLI is also ensuring that we have landfill sites; not dumping sites but landfill sites, where the waste generated in Lagos can be recycled and re-engineered and also resold so that we can create wealth and a new business for Lagosians to tap into,” Ambode noted.
