By Olasunkanmi Akoni

DUMPSITE management is a unit under Lagos Waste Management Authority, LAWMA. There are three major landfills and two temporary sites serving Lagos residents. The three major landfill sites are Olushosun, at Ojota, Abule Egba, old Alimosho and Solous, Igando.

Approximately, 10,000 tons of waste are received per day across the metropolis

Oloshosun landfill site is situated in the northern part of Lagos within Ikeja Local Government and receives approximately 40 per cent of the total waste deposits from Lagos. The size is 42.7 hectares and a residual life span of 20 years.

Abule Egba landfill site occupies a land of about 10.2 hectares in the western part of Lagos in Alimosho Local Government and receives waste from the densely populated area. The residual life span is approximately eight years.

Soluos landfill site is situated along Lagos State University–Iba Road. Soluos II-is on 7.8 hectares of land with average life span of five years, while Soluos III- a new site with approximately five hectares of land with average life span of five years. Each site

receives an average of about 2,250 tons of waste per day. There are other satellite landfill sites. They are Owutu (Ikorodu), Sangotedo (Eti–Osa) and Temu (Epe). These sites serve asback–ups for the three main landfill sites, and also have an advantage of proximity. They are temporary sites, and receive an average waste of about 1,864.29 tons per day.

Modernisation of landfill sites

The present administration in the state led by Governor Babatunde Fashola, through LAWMA, is working to ensure that all the landfill sites in the state are modernized and transformed into other facilities. Upgrading of the three principal landfill sites are ongoing and nearing completion. It aimed to improve turn-around time of trucks, and also reduce traffic congestion.

The transformation agenda started with Olushosun, which is expected to end up as a Green Field. LAWMA is creating a green park in Olusosun.  the Refuse dump at Olusosun today is more than 20 million tonnes of waste, according to LAWMA Managing Director,

LAWMA, Mr. Oladimeji Oresanya. Speaking when he led a delegation of the agency on a courtesy visit to the management of Vanguard Newspapers at its Apapa, Corporate Headquarters, Lagos, last week, Oresanya explained that the 20 million tons of waste would be used to generate methane for the next 100 years and more.

“The degradation would go on for millions of years. Some years after one million years, it would turn to crude oil. But for now when we are still alive, we will turn it into Green Park and make it beautiful so that people can come there and learn about how they can further improve their environment.” Oresanya added.

In the coming months, LAWMA will commence the redevelopment project in Soluos, at Igando and the rest. “In the next two months, we will commence a project in Soluos, we are recovering the site and we would turn the site into a material recovery facility. This will be done in partnership with a United Kingdom, UK, based company. We have signed the Memoranda of Understanding, MoU, and everything is ongoing.”

Conversion process

About 25 per cent of Lagos wastes go into conversion process both formally and informally. Oresanya said LAWMA planned to scale it up through the expansion of the conversion rate to about 40 percent. On street sweeping, the state is expanding the street sweeping capacity through community cleanup programme called the 3Cs, Community Cleanup Campaign. It is to allow communities that want to create employment and training programme to do so.

The LAWMA boss added: “We have started that in Makoko and Obalende axes of the state, this is working effectively. LAWMA pays 50 percent of the remuneration and the community generates the balance. “We create employment for people within the community. They engage in sweeping of their community, monitor waste disposal. This programme is running effectively. We have started in Surulere and we are moving to Ajegunle, Apapa very soon.

These are the initiatives from the communities to team up and share the vision.” The community drainage service is being introduced to provide alternatives for communities, that is, they can engage people within their community to do the drainage cleaning service. While the owner of the house pays part of the entire cost of the drainage cleaning, LAWMA also pay half of the required fund for the cleaning. “We have started in Ikoyi, Ikeja and Victoria Island.

Our target is to ensure that 2, 000 jobs are created from this system. Our aim is to ensure that every street in the metropolis is spotless, every household to have a container for waste storage. I want Lagos to be the recycling hub of Africa “Oresanya disclosed.