Lagos State Government is set to deploy 220 additional trucks to strengthen waste evacuation across the state, Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat has said.
Hamzat disclosed this on Saturday during the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in Festac, Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area, explaining that the new trucks would complement the existing Private Sector Participation waste collection system.
The planned deployment comes about two months after Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu announced plans to acquire 150 compactor trucks to improve waste management in Lagos.
According to the deputy governor, the additional trucks are necessary to cope with the increasing volume of refuse generated as the state’s population continues to grow.
“The state government will be bringing in another 220 trucks to make sure that we supplement our PSP. What we need our people to also do is to make sure that they patronise their PSP, not the cart pushers, because they are not organised. You don’t know where the waste is ending up,” Hamzat said.
He also urged residents to take responsibility for proper waste disposal, warning that indiscriminate dumping, particularly in drainage channels, could obstruct water flow and contribute to flooding.
“A lot of people are coming to Lagos, and therefore they generate waste. So part of what you can see that we are doing is that we are getting many more trucks to actually go and evacuate,” he added.
Hamzat stressed that maintaining a clean environment requires cooperation between the government and residents. He encouraged communities to organise regular sanitation exercises and make environmental cleanliness a consistent practice.
“We cannot be a people without a healthy environment. It doesn’t matter what we do, a cleaner environment is what makes a city or a state sustainable,” he said.
He further urged residents to use approved waste disposal channels and patronise PSP operators rather than relying on unregulated cart pushers.
Also speaking during the exercise, the Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, said waste management had improved following the introduction of 24-hour emergency response teams and efforts to address challenges at landfills and dumpsites.
Wahab said the state had also stepped up its engagement with PSP operators to improve waste collection, adding that the government had intervened in locations where the Lagos State Waste Management Authority would ordinarily not operate.
He said PSP operators had received assurances of government support, while residents were expected to pay for waste collection services under the polluter-pays principle.
The commissioner also disclosed that Lagos was gradually moving away from the traditional system of collecting and dumping waste towards a circular model in which discarded materials are recovered and converted into useful resources.
According to him, the transition has resulted in the development of material recovery facilities in Badagry and Epe, as well as transfer stations at Soluyi and Olusosun.
On cart pushers, Wahab said the government was engaging with them but would not implement measures that could create additional environmental or security challenges.
He said investigations had shown that some cart pushers dumped refuse in drainage channels and road medians, worsening flooding and other environmental problems.
Wahab also expressed concern over reports linking some cart pushers to criminal activities, including the theft of metals, saying the government would not adopt a policy that could aggravate security challenges in Lagos.
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