By KUNLE ADESHINA

The cosmopolitan nature of Lagos as the commercial nerve centre of the country could possibly be likened to a nectar which always attract interest and patronage from all ‘insects’ and sectors despite its status as a sub-national. Many have even argued that some of the pressures which Lagos has had to contend with in terms of the over- stretching of its infrastructural amenities emanated from its location as a land of limitless opportunities that offer home to everybody irrespective of his or her origin, religion or creed.

Successive administrations since the return of civil rule have devised various strategies to make the city of Lagos liveable for its ever-increasing residents. However, a distinction must be made with the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration which took office in May 2017 with the mantra of THEMES Agenda which specifically revolves round Transportation and Traffic Management, Health and Environment, Education and Technology, Making Lagos a 21st Century Economy, Entertainment and Tourism and Security and Good Governance and recording very outstanding successes.

However, since he assumed office for a second term in office on May 29, 2023 with an enlarged THEMESplus Agenda , one sector that has experienced a reinvigoration is the environment sector largely because the ministry anchored its work plan on the development of a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach to ensure a clean, resilient and liveable city. The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources as structured by the present administration under the captaincy of the Commissioner, Mr. Tokunbo Wahab, in the last two years is transitioning from a linear “collect and dump” waste system to a sustainable circular economy which will bring about a very appreciable reduction of the quantum of waste generated on a daily basis, especially in terms of what gets to our landfill sites.

Specifically, as part of the agenda to transition from controlled dumpsite to sanitary landfill and direct treatment of municipal waste, the State Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, has decommissioned the Epe landfill, while Olusosun and Solous 3 landfill are to be converted to Transfer Loading Stations, TLS, while Erekiti and Agbowa site is marked for Material Recovery MRF /residual landfills. 

The state has also opened the Oke-Osho sanitary landfill in Epe with a total area of about 120 hectares designed for solid waste management, particularly for the support of the growing economies and development of the Lekki-Epe hub. In addition to these, the present administration deploys daily not less than 15,000 street sweepers across highways, inner roads and markets to ensure a cleaner metropolis. It also ensures stronger enforcement of environmental laws, penalising illegal dumping and indiscriminate waste disposal alongside several preventive measures.

 The state in recognition of the need to address open defecation is constructing more modern public toilets in markets, transport hubs and informal settlements just as the construction of additional 150 new public toilets is on-going alongside an additional 250 toilets being executed through the public private partnership under the WASH initiative. Arrangements are also in place that allow pressed members of the public to make use of toilets facilities located in major filling stations statewide. The same applies to eateries and supermarkets who have all been mandated by law to provide toilet facilities in their business outfits where patrons and members of the public are allowed to walk in and ease themselves.

Several hundreds of public toilets also exist across the metropolis, some at major motor parks for use of members of the public. Some of them are free while some of them charge a token. The state is, however, always monitoring the state of these toilets to ensure that they conform to minimum acceptable standards. All these represent genuine efforts by the present administration to ensure a cleaner city that is devoid of all issues of environmental malfeasance. What is, however, still largely missing is the total lack of decency amongst several of the residents of Lagos. In several locations in Lagos today, it is becoming a fad to see adults in broad daylight with the trousers half way down and “balls dangling” defecating openly.

Gone were the days when this environmental nuisance was committed under the cover of darkness. Today, along major highways with high vehicular movements, bridges, major and pedestrian, many unscrupulous and shameless people are defacing our environment with faeces and polluting the atmosphere. Some are even daring when confronted and ready to splash the faeces on whoever comes close. How did we as a people sink this low is the question that should agitate the mind of every right thinking resident.

On its part, the state is not relenting in its enforcement measures to ensure that residents obey the provisions of the 2017 Environmental Sanitation and Management law through the hard work of our enforcement agencies led by the operatives of the Kick Against Indiscipline, KAI. Many people have been arrested for dumping refuse in the wrong places, refusing to patronise accredited PSP operators, openly urinating and defecating, engaging in street trading and dashing across the expressway when there are pedestrian bridges to be climbed.

The policy of the present administration in this wise has largely been the carrot and stick. Many of those caught on the wrong side of the law have faced prosecution, but have largely escaped with light sentences and options of fine or non-custodial sentences. This is because the state is not interested in putting anyone behind the bars without justification but in ensuring that everyone who resides or does business here conforms with minimum standards expected from decent and normal human beings.

Under the leadership provided by the team captain in the environment and water resources sector, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, the state has also in the last two years been very pragmatic and decisive in transitioning to a sustainable circular economy by banning the sale, distribution and use of Styrofoam food packs, a major harbinger of health and well-being issues and a contributor to urban flooding and clogged drains with positive results emanating from our drainage clearance process. It also in line with its commitment, commenced the enforcement of a ban on single use plastics from the beginning of Year 2025 as widely advertised for over 12 months. 

The state is already getting the buy-in of major chain stores and outlets who now give customers the option of buying bigger/reusable bags to convey their goods and retaining such for multiple uses instead of the single use bags to which many are accustomed. 

Although the move has generated uproar in some departmental stores because people can just not come to terms with paying for carrier bags when it is supposed to be free. However, with increased sensitization, people are coming to terms with it and embracing the usage as it is obtained in many distant locations. The state has also gone a step further by inaugurating a plastic waste fund management committee comprising both government and non-governmental members as part of measures to support the implementation of plastic waste management process.

The state ministry of the Environment and Water Resources has also been upbeat in the last two years concerning the way it is confronting the menace of industrial effluent discharge into the Lagos waterways, bringing about a drastic reduction to 25 percent owing to the proactive consistency of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) in regulating their discharge through permits, fines, penalties and outright publicized sealing off.

Through effective monitoring, regulatory standards and best practices efficiently implemented in manufacturing facilities and chemical warehouses across the state, there have been reduction of incidents of fire outbreaks and chemical spillage in chemical markets in the state. Contrary to insinuations, Lagos state officials actively leverage natural purification processes to improve the quality of water in the lagoon and canals whilst ensuring that they engage in continuous surveillance and enforcement measures that ensure that businesses and residential areas comply with waste water management policies to reduce pollutants in waterways.

At the last count, the state through the Waste Water Management Office has deployed three Modular Septage Pre-Treatment Plants (MSPP) that enables efficient treatment of fecal sludge before discharge into the Odo Iya Alaro waterbody. This is in addition to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Messrs Phasur Green Energy to leverage on Phasur’s enterprise and resources to enhance wastewater management through the use of dewatered sludges for the protection of biogas. It is anticipated that with all the measures put in place by the Sanwo-Olu administration in the last two years in the environment sector, coupled with moral suasion and stepping up of advocacy, a cleaner and environmentally safer will no longer be a destination but a reality for all well-meaning and law-abiding residents of the Centre of Excellence.

*Adeshina is Director, Public Affairs, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Lagos