A cross session of market leaders at LAWMA worskshop recently.
The President of Auto Spare Part & Machinery Dealers Association (ASPMDA), Lagos International Trade Fair complex, Hon. Ngozi Emechebe has hailed the matured manner in which the Head of Market Waste Services at Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Mrs. Aderonke Apena has been piloting and monitoring sanitation performances of various markets in Lagos.
In an interview in his office after a recent LAWMA training workshop for market leaders in Lagos which ASPMDA representatives attended, he described the leadership intelligence of Mrs. Apena as superb and highly commendable.
According to ASPMDA president, “If every major market in Lagos will key into the market waste management advice of Mrs. Apena, issues of dirtiness in markets will be a thing of the part because she knows how to educate and train people on how best to practice sustainable sanitation in markets.
“To me, I wish to recommend Mrs. Apena for both State and international awards over her markets sanitation crusade and trainings across the state major markets. Her intervention in ASPMDA and other major markets last year has brought in strategic sanitation managment ideas and progress in several markets including ASPMDA.
Also speaking, the First Vice President of ASPMDA, Sir Livy Adili, who led ASPMDA team to the sensitization workshop described the experience as very apt and thanked LAWMA for coming up with the programme. He said “The programme provided a very good platform for Lagos market executives to interface with LAWMA and in the process have a very clear understanding of LAWMA’s waste management policies, strategies and methods for adoptions in various markets.
“LAWMA is using the sensitization programme to educate markets on best practices in sanitation and latest technologies in waste management in line with global best practices.
He commended LAWMA for the training and assured that all the knowledge so garnered at the workshop will be effectively applied by ASPMDA to drive the already environmental discipline in our plaza to the next level.
Business Hilights recalls that LAWMA recently organised a sensitisation workshop, for traders at its headquarters, Ijora-Olopa, during which it admonished markets in the state to take charge of the waste generated by them.
Themed: “Hygienic Environment, Responsibility of All”, the workshop was attended by over 200 representatives of various markets located in the Lagos Central district.
In his opening remarks, the Managing Director/CEO of LAWMA, Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin, represented by the Head of Market Waste Services, Mrs. Aderonke Apena, noted that maintaining a clean and hygienic environment was a primary responsibility of the various markets.
He said, “A hygienic environment offers numerous benefits, primarily by reducing the risk of illness and infection, while also improving overall health and well-being. This includes a cleaner physical space, reduced stress and anxiety, and enhanced productivity. This gives us protection from water-borne diseases, other infections, and pollution. “Therefore, all hands must be on deck to achieve a sustainable and healthy environment.
“It starts from our homes. We are a reflection of what we do in our various homes. I enjoin you to pay attention to the message of today’s workshop and apply it, both in your homes and your business places”
He added that maintaining hygiene in a marketplace is very important, “If a market is unhygienic, both the buyer and seller are at health risk. Let us all take proper responsibility for our environment”, he stressed.
Gbadegesin noted that the sensitisation workshop was premised on the THEMES Plus Agenda, where health and the environment were placed side by side, stressing that failure to maintain proper hygiene in marketplaces would have attendant negative consequences on public health and the environment.
According to him, “A market is a place where so many people visit daily, making it a veritable place for transmitting diseases if proper sanitation is not carried out. A market should always be in a clean state. “Therefore, market users need to take waste management in the markets seriously to avoid epidemics in society”.
Speaking further on the role of traders towards ensuring proper hygiene in the markets, the LAWMA boss highlighted that proper waste containerisation should be prioritised, through bagging and separation of waste.
He observed that “Commingling of waste is unhygienic and improper. Waste emanating from the markets is of different types. There is food waste, animal waste, agricultural waste, recyclables and so on. All this waste should be properly bagged to avoid littering. We have held a series of meetings with the leadership of markets on the patronage of only LAWMA-assigned PSP operators. It is illegal to patronise cart pushers.”
He warned that LAWMA personnel had been assigned to all markets across the state to ensure prompt payment for waste services, adding that it was important for markets to get bin keepers to monitor and arrest illegal waste carriers who pollute the market environment.”
On the recent closure of some markets for indiscriminate waste disposal, Gbadegesin noted that the government did not take delight in shutting down markets, urging the traders to manage waste responsibly to prevent such measures.
Commenting on the benefit of the workshop, a trader from Folashade Tinubu Ojo Market, Suru Alaba, Mr. Lukman Ajadi, commended the Authority for organising the sensitisation workshop, adding that he had learnt a lot about proper waste separation and the benefits of recycling.
Another participant from Alayabiagba Market, Mrs. Chioma Kenneth, noted that the workshop was educative, urging the Authority to intensify night surveillance to apprehend suspected touts who engaged in illegal waste dumping in the markets.
