The Nation Newspaper

Tag: LAWMA

  • Lawson goes home

    Lawson goes home

    A son of the first female councilor in Nigeria, Prince John Boevi Lawson, has passed away. Lawson, who died in Lagos on November 11, was 80.

    Born in Ibadan on October 30, 1933, his father, the late Bishop Hailing Lawson, was a missionary, while his mother, the late Mrs. Henrietta Olaitan Lawson (nee Macaulay) was a politician. She was elected to the then Lagos Town Council. She was the grand-daughter of the late Revd Thomas Babington Macaulay, founder and first principal of the CMS Grammar School, Lagos, the oldest secondary school in Nigeria.

    Her maternal grand-mother, Abigail Macaulay, was the daughter of the late Rt. Revd Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the acclaimed first African Bishop of the Church of England, and the first to translate the Bible into Yoruba.

    Lawson attended Baptist Academy, Lagos, and worked for the defunct Lagos City Council, Amex and J. Allen, before enlisting in the Nigerian Army where he served in the corps of military police. He left the Army in 1979, worked for the defunct Lagos State Waste Disposal Board (now LAWMA) as Vehicle Inspection Officer, and retired in 1993.

    A Christian wake will hold at his residence, 4, Adedoja Street, Mushin, Lagos tomorrow at 6pm. He will be buried at Atan Cemetery, Yaba, Lagos, on Friday after a funeral service at African Church Cathedral, Salem, Freeman Street, Ebute-Meta, Lagos, at 10am.

  • LAWMA truck kills worker

    LAWMA truck kills worker

    A truck belonging to the Lagos Waste Management Authourity (LAWMA) yesterday killed one of its workers on duty.

    It was gathered that the man was in one of the trucks operated by a Private Sector Participation (PSP) operator.

    The accident occurred about 7am, causing the PSP truck to overturn, killing the LAWMA worker instantly. But three other occupants of the ill-fated truck escaped unhurt.

    Eyewitnesses said the accident occurred at the Car Wash bus stop, Egbeda/Idimu Road, Lagos, adding that it was caused by commercial bus drivers who stopped to pick passengers along the road at unauthorised bus stops.

    It was gathered that as soon as the truck overturned, the deceased, identified as Idowu, was caught under, with part of his body, from his chest, cut into halves and buried under the truck.

    The accident was said to have occurred as its driver tried to avoid ramming into two commercial buses, filled with passengers.

    The Nation learnt that the commercial drivers were said to be struggling to overtake each other at the bus stop, to pick passengers.

    The accident caused a gridlock, which spilled over to Iyana-Ipaja, Isheri, Igando, and Iyana-Oba among others.

    Commuters were forced to alight from the buses and take to trekking to their various destinations.

    Operatives of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), the police and LAWMA stormed the scene to clear the remains of the deceased and the truck.

    Two cranes were later brought to move the truck off the deceased’s body.

    Some of the LAWMA officials who knew the deceased broke down in tears at the sight of his remains.

    One of them, Mrs Aminu-Odukoya, a field supervisor, said Idowu was one of the officials collecting refuse from residents whenever the PSP truck stopped at refuse points.

    She said she was pained that nobody was able to identify the buses that caused the accidents. Apparently, both buses took off immediately the accident occurred.

    They had stopped to pick bags of refuse and were about driving off when the accident occurred.

    Another LAWMA official, Mr Olakunle Agenjo, said: “This Car Wash is not a bus stop. This accident happened at about 7am. The PSP truck had stopped to pick refuse and was about to drive away when the accident happened. A commercial bus came and parked in its front, picking passengers; another one parked at the back of the truck, also picking passengers.

    “Suddenly, as the truck was about to continue its journey, the commercial bus at the back drove fast and attempted to overtake the one at the front. But the one at the front would not allow it. In the confusion, the truck would have run into them, and it would have led to the death of so many people, which was why the driver attempted to steer the truck over the culvert. The truck overturned and our man turned with it and he was killed.”

  • 2013 BEACH SOCCER: LAWMA, FCMB partner COPA LAGOS

    2013 BEACH SOCCER: LAWMA, FCMB partner COPA LAGOS

    The Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has unveiled plans to support COPA Lagos through the provision of its trucks in the COPA Lagos Clean the Beach Campaign.

    COPA Lagos Clean the Beach Campaign is the largest volunteer beach clean-up campaign in Lagos. Volunteers in and from around the city are encouraged to join the organisers, players and sponsors with one goal: preventing hundreds of thousands of pounds of pollution from trashing our oceans and harming marine wildlife.

    Ocean trash is a serious pollution problem that affects the health of people, wildlife and local economies. Trash in the ocean compromises human and wildlife health, which affects the livelihoods of millions all over the planet. The typical beach is littered with pieces of paper, nylon bags, cigarette butt or empty bottles and beer cans which apart from being unsightly will eventually make its way to the ocean. Oceans remain the largest part of our water cycle, generating oxygen and rain necessary to sustain life on Earth.

    According to Michael Smith, Project Manager, COPA Lagos, “Everybody loves the beach, but not everyone respects the beach. Every year, beachgoers leave tons of trash on Lagos beaches and even more washes up from the Atlantic Ocean.

    ”Although the International Coastal Cleanup was marked in September, we feel the need to constantly educate ourselves about the coastal environment and what we can do in our daily lives to solve problems of pollution. Beach debris is not just hideous, it poses a threat to humans and wildlife,” Smith said.

    “LAWMA has done remarkably well to restore our beaches to their former glory; we must cultivate a habit of proper waste disposal. Broken glass and mangled cans endanger those who recreate at the beach and rob us all of a culture of beach leisure,” Smith added.

    “Last year the organisers of the event, the players, officials of our sponsors including FCMB and volunteers cleared the Eko Atlantic beach front of pounds of debris.”

    According to the Managing Director of LAWMA, Mr. Ola Oresanya, “Our mission at the agency is to provide professional, efficient and sustainable waste management and disposal services to the generality of Lagosians, corporate bodies and Governments (Local and State) in Lagos State.”

  • Towards a safe water regime

    Towards a safe water regime

    Experts in the water sector and the Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission gathered to deliberate at the first-ever summit on waste water management. Their findings showed inherent dangers in the neglect of the sector by stakeholders. SEYI ODEWALE reports.

    What happens if 18 million residents of Lagos defecate daily, using the water closet (WC) facility that empties it’s content into the septic tanks or if 900,000 people defecate into gutters, drains and streams?

    Where these solid human wastes go and how they are managed were some of the posers that caught the attention of water regulators, engineers, scientists, lawmakers, estate owners/managers, fast food operators, abattoir operators, pharmaceutical companies, businesses that generate or provide water and the public at the one-day summit organised by the Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission (LSWRC), recently in Lagos.

    With a population of about 19 million, Lagos, today, generates about 1.5million cubic metres of waste water daily from industries and human activities. With a projected population of about 25 million by 2015 and a growing rate of eight per cent, waste water management, no doubt, would be taxing for Lagos as a megacity. This was paramount on the minds of those who attended the summit.

    The summit, which had four papers delivered by experts in the water sector, among other things, shed light on the ongoing reform by the state government in the sector, government policy on regulation and management of foul water, commonly called waste water generated from homes and businesses, and how the water should be properly collected, stored or transported, treated and disposed.

    Chief Executive Officer, Quantum Utilities Mr Adegboyega Andy Daramola who presented a paper on Understanding Waste Water, defined waste water as any type of water that has been utilised in some capacity that negatively impacts the quality of the water. According to him, the term waste, means a material, object or substance that is no longer required and is to be discarded. He added that waste could take many forms, which include gaseous emissions, solid refuse, waste packaging, waste effluent, waste oils, solvents and liquid residues in drums.

    Daramola said waste water comes from municipal sewage – household, similar commercial and institutional wastes, agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, forestry, food preparation and processing, human or animal health care and/or related research – hospitals.

    Other sources, according to him, include effluent from boilers, chemical processes – organic and inorganic, refrigerants, propellants, coatings, leather, fur and textile industries, power stations, petroleum refining, natural gas and treatment of coal, small businesses – photographic industry, oil spills, surface water and wastes from waste management facilities, off-site waste water treatment plants.

    He said the need to treat waste water and protect water environments is vital because it constitutes source of drinking water and vibrant rivers that provide habitat for fish, birds and other animals, leisure and recreation, important resources for many industries and help to protect public health.

    Waste water streams, he said, contain pollutants such as pharmaceutical wastes, phosphates, mercury, lead, nitrates, metals, acids, alkalis, fat, oil, grease, dyes, insecticides/pesticides, radioactive materials, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) compounds, lubricants, hot water and pathogens, noting that in the United States of America (USA), the industries contribute to more than half of the total water pollution.

    “Another important pollutant, that can endanger marine life, is the oil spilled by oil tanks. United Nations estimates, 1.3 million barrels of oils are spilled annually into the Persian Gulf, and about 285 million gallons are spilled into the oceans every year.

    “In many countries, industrial water is not treated adequately before discharging it into rivers or lakes. This is particularly true in the case of small-scale industries that do not have sufficient capital to invest in pollution control equipment,” he said.

    Effects of such pollutants on humans, he said, could be devastating. He noted the Bangladesh experience, when in the 1970s, up to 250,000 children died yearly from drinking dirty water, noting that today’s experience in other parts of the world, particularly, Africa, can be more fatal. The World Health Organisation (WHO), he said, described the Bangladesh experience as “the largest mass poisoning of a population in history… The scale of the environmental disaster is greater than any seen before; it is beyond the accidents in Bhopal, India, in 1984, and Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986”.

    Water pollution, he said, occurred as a result of sudden release of a strong effluent, sudden release of a large volume of effluent, discharge of substances that inhibit wastewater processes, high or low pH discharge (>11 or < 5) and very high temperature discharge.

    The best way of transporting waste water, he noted, is through conventional means, which he said, are septic tanks (STs) and reed beds, submerged aerated filtration (SAF), anaerobic reactors, activated sludge systems, drum filters, rotating biological contactors (RBCs), dispersed air flotation (DAF), sequential batch reactors (SBR), moving bed bio-reactor (MBBR), bio-filters – (also called trickling filters, percolating filters and bacteria beds).

    Other speakers such as Pedi Obani gave reasons why waste water must be regulated.

    Obani, a lecturer from Faculty of Law, University of Benin (Nigeria) and Research Fellow, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education and University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), said waste water is regulated for accountability and good governance; efficiency of production and prices; sustainable development; improved access to basic services; sustainability of service delivery; fairness and rule of law.

    The way forward, according to Obani, is for the state to carry out a satellite imagery of Lagos and a topographic map; conduct studies on the existing waste water treatment structures available in Lagos to know the level of treatment carried out by each and categorise them; carry out a waste water master plan with a phased development; conduct feasibility studies on the system to use; conduct an environmental impact assessment; embark on sensitization exercise for residents on the proposed waste water system to be introduced and ensure that there is efficient water supply to operate the system.

    Others include ensuring that new districts/estates commence the use of the central sewer system, ensure that a good laboratory is setup for testing of treated waste water before discharge into water bodies; set up a team of experienced sanitary professionals for approval and regulatory services and commence enforcement of regulation of waste water treatment to prepare users on time prior to take off of the proposed new system.

    Present at the gathering were the House Committee Chairman on Water, Hon. Abiodun Tobun, who chaired the occasion; Special Adviser to Governor Babatunde Fashola on Parastatals Monitoring, Gboyega Salvador; Lagos State Waste Management Authority, (LAWMA)’s Chief Executive, Ola Oresanya; representatives of Lagos State Waste Water Management Agency; representatives of the Ministry of Health; Fast food owners; private water service providers; sanitary inspectors and the summit host, Lags State Water Regulatory Commission (LSWRC)’ Executive Secretary, Mrs Tanwa Koya and her crew.

  • Even soldiers bow to us, say female truck drivers

    Even soldiers bow to us, say female truck drivers

    They are called ‘pilots’ by their employers, but others call them ‘Iyawo Fashola’. However, they see themselves as ambassadors engaged in cleaning up the state.  Hannah Ojo worked with them.

    Betty Ikpana is a beautiful woman by all standards. Apart from her manicured nails and minimal make-up showing a glowing skin, which makes the mother of two children aged 9 and 11 appear younger than her age, her impeccable flow with the English language is also commendable for a school certificate holder. She also draws her ingenuity from the fact that she is a woman holding her stakes in a world where some men won’t even tread. Wearing the customized Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) shirt and a three-quarter jean trousers, she jumps into the truck setting the engine in motion to start the day.

    “One of the things about this job is that it makes you know so many places in Lagos”, she told this reporter while stretching out her neck to monitor the movement of the truck loader being dropped from the vehicle at a collection point in Ijora-Badia where residents came out to drop their wastes.

    For Mrs. Opeyemi Adesina, another ‘pilot’ on the wheel of LAWMA skip trucks, driving the truck is not as arduous as most people are wont to believe. In her words: “When you are at work and you enjoy what you are doing, you don’t actually feel the stress.” For the middle aged woman who holds a National Certificate in Education (NCE) certificate, the attitude of people to her occupation gives her the courage to be herself when handling the wheel. “Some, even women like myself would stop me and say ‘Madam I hail you o’. There was one woman who wanted me to give her a pass and she said, ‘don’t scare me I can drive trailer o’”.

    Jibes and applause are the common experiences of the female truck drivers when they meet with other road users in the course of work. Promise Ayuba, 31, is from Kaduna State. She came to Lagos in 2002 in search of greener pastures. She told The Nation that she was first served her apprenticeship as a fashion designer while helping her sister to sell wares alongside. For the lady who started driving last year March, she was in the training school for a year before she was certified to mount the truck. According to her, the first day she drove from Apapa to Ijora was a big day for her because she had no driving experience prior to being trained by LAWMA. “When we started the training, I pinched myself asking if I was doing the right thing but I am happy that I am being recommended as one of the bests.”

    If the cap fits, wear it

    Ikpana who was a teacher but had to leave the job after relocating to another area confessed to being distraught at first when she learnt that she would be driving a truck. “The first day I was on a steering wheel, I was scared to my teeth.” She was scared that she was going to drive a truck, not a car and not just an ordinary truck!

    With the ease at which she now handles the truck navigating through the narrow streets and paths of the densely populated Ijora area, one would hardly accept that this ‘lady pilot’ as the female truck drivers are called, could not even ride a bicycle before she was trained for three months in 2009 when a friend hinted her to apply for the job at LAWMA office. She started driving officially in 2010 and has recorded no accident so far. According to her, the safety report is also same for her other women colleagues. “I don’t think there is any female colleague with a major accident apart from minor, minor things”, she said. She feels so comfortable on the wheel that even the stares from men under the bridge as she drove through to the mainland on the day this reporter accompanied her to work seems to escape her notice.

    Mrs. Adesina also makes a clean breast of not holding a steering wheel before LAWMA gave her the opportunity. She said of her reaction at the starting point: “When we started and I learnt we would be driving truck. I asked myself, can I drive kolekole (waste) truck? The answer to that question now lies in the fulfilment and courage she gets from her occupation.

    So far, Ayuba sees her job as a truck driver to be interesting, especially as it relates to the nature of people she meets on the road. “Sometimes with the market women, you have cause to exchange words and after that you become friends again.” She also speaks of the name people call her when they sight her on the road. “People call us different names, Iyawo Fasola, Mama Laje, even soldiers that are handling guns, when they see us, they do bow for us.”

    Pains, aches and stench

    At the initial stage when she started driving, Ayuba confessed to feeling the pains of driving the truck in her legs. One of the demands of the job is that she sometimes takes off by 6:30 am from the office to beat traffic on the Ajah axis, where her truck plies. She also cites the challenge with other road users, especially when held in long traffic.

    “Bad roads and traffic also delay our work. Sometimes a journey that should not be more than 30 minutes would last for more than one hour thirty minutes. Sometimes when you say you want to close early for 1 or 12 pm, you end up closing by 2: 30 or even 3 0clock”, adds Adesina.

    Smells and stench are part of the demands of the jobs. Women, by their nature are less tolerant of foul smells, one then wonders how these women cope, especially since the stench at the Transfer Loading station where they offload the refuse from the truck cannot even be repressed with nose guards.

    “At the initial stage, the dirt irritated me but with time, I adjusted”, answers Adesina. Her assertion is the same with Ikpafa who said she gets the courage to cope with the job since she is contributing to cleaning the environment.

    The home fronts

    With husbands and children to care for, one wonders how these female truck drivers hold it down at the home front. For Adesina, it is all thanks to God for her husband who understands the nature of her job. “If I do not feel like going out, he gives me encouragement. If it is to wake up early because of the job he would say I should not worry. Whenever I come back home and I am tired, sometimes he would offer to help prepare the food.”

    Her colleague, Ikpana believes any woman who is ready to work should have a programme for the home front. “I strategise and programme everything that I do at the home front so driving the truck does not weigh me down to the extent that it affects my duty at home. Even my two children feel proud that ‘my mummy is driving this big truck’”, she stated.

    With the accolades and encomium their job status confers on them, it is interesting to know that they sometimes do not escape hostilities from other road users. “Other road users are so much impatient” laments Adesina. “There was a day a man just jumped down and started raining insults on me. I kept my cool. It was another man that came out from his own car that shunned him off.”

    Ikpana on the other hand believes some of the men feel threatened when they sight females on wheels of the truck hence their hostility. “We just do our things and we try not to get into their way”, she adds jokingly.

    If there is one another thing the trio of these ‘iron women’ seems to agree on, it is the fact that there is no field a woman cannot break into. They also believe women should be engaged in order to lessen the burden from the men at the home front.

    As it appears, there is no limitation stopping these women as they look forward to more fulfilling adventures keeping their head above water in a man’s world. “I think I want to see women driving trailers”, Ikpana said. Asked if she would be willing to undertake the task; “with what I am doing with this truck. I think I can try.”

    It is a world of possibilities.

  • LAWMA: Clearing waste, creating jobs

    LAWMA: Clearing waste, creating jobs

    Its mandate is to keep the metropolis clean, but the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has gone beyond that to empower the people by creating jobs for them. Assistant Editor Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie reports.

    Many entrepreneurs and would-

    be investors are faced with a

    challenge and that is epileptic power supply. The power problem has also affected job creation. But the resourceful can get a job or create one where there is none.

    Since its coming a few years ago, the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has been creating jobs while battling to make the metropolis clean.

    It employs artisans whose shops were demolished for the ‘New face of Lagos’ and those who monitor the environment, plant trees, flowers and their supervisors.

    The waste management agency is also considering demographic policies and strategies targeted specifically at women graduate drivers and advocacy personnel who move around town and far-flung places to advise residents on environmental issues.

    LAWMA Managing Director Ola Oresanya said the 46 female drivers initially engaged to drive the waste evacuation trucks have shown an uncommon tenderness in handling the vehicles. This, he said, has encouraged the organisation to consider hiring more hands.

    The job creation services of the agency is also targetting divers and swimmers to clean the ocean views and the riverine areas.

    The process of job creation at LAWMA is evolving, according to Oresanya, who also disclosed that the agency has established a recycling plant at the 20-year-old dumpsite at Olusosun, Oregun, Ikeja. He said the plant can create jobs for thousands of youths directly and indirectly.

    He said: “The 42.7 hectares site has been efficiently re-fitted with the installation of plastic/nylon recycling warehouse, odour neutralisers and mobile atomisers and construction of fuel bay and access roads to make the site convenient for those who will work there.”

    He explained that the landfill site receives an average of 300 trucks of waste daily, which are weighed at the weigh bridge to ascertain the quantity of waste coming into the site per truck. He said every aspect of LAWMA activity creates jobs.

    The LAWMA boss said the waste-to-electricity project in markets is a job spinner as people will be employed to collect the waste and also work in the conversion process that will generate electricity to all the markets in the state. He said Ikosi Market is benefiting from it as it has been energised from wastes collected. He spoke of the readiness of the agency to replicate this in other locations.

    He said: “These infrastructural developments have been of tremendous benefit to the proper management of waste at the landfill. It has helped in the upgrading of the site and improvement of the accessibility of refuse trucks and compactors servicing the site. This has resulted to the reduction of the traffic congestion on adjoining roads and, in the process, creating huge employment opportunities for Lagosians.”

    Oresanya stated that at the handover of newly-purchased skip trucks by the state government to LAWMA, the female drivers had recorded zero accidents with the vehicles compared with their male counterparts.

    Besides, he said the female drivers were more friendly and considerate of other road users. They are also enthusiastic about their job. He noted that the decision to engage them was in line with Governor Babatunde Fashola’s focus on women empowerment in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

    “Three years ago, we brought in women to drive our trucks on an experimental basis. I am proud to say the experiment has been a huge success,” he said.

    The LAWMA boss said the female drivers were trained for six months at the Lagos Drivers’ Institute before they were given the vehicles to handle, adding that the organisation was using them as models for their male counterparts.

    Commissioner for the Environment Tunji Bello, who handed over the vehicles to the LAWMA female drivers, said the skip trucks would be suitable for evacuating waste in inner and narrow streets, and from communal pick spots where compactors could not easily get to.

    He said the state government was an ‘equal opportunity employer’ and would support the female drivers, who would operate the skip trucks, to explore their potential with adequate healthcare facilities and insurance packages.

    Bello said: “To Lagos residents, this is your tax in action. When we started our environmental revolution efforts, a lot of people doubted us. But we have been waxing stronger. We are not only interested in the highbrow areas, but everywhere in the state.

    “The residents owe it a duty to pay for the evacuation of their refuse so that we can reinvest the money in building capacity to serve them better.”

  • LAWMA: Clearing waste, creating jobs

    Its mandate is to keep the metropolis clean, but the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has gone beyond that to empower the people by creating jobs for them. Assistant Editor Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie reports.

     

    Many entrepreneurs and would be investors are faced with a challenge and that is epileptic power supply. The power problem has also affected job creation. But the resourceful can get a job or create one where there is none.

    Since its coming a few years ago, the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has been creating jobs while battling to make the metropolis clean.

    It employs artisans whose shops were demolished for the ‘New face of Lagos’ and those who monitor the environment, plant trees, flowers and their supervisors.

    The waste management agency is also considering demographic policies and strategies targeted specifically at women graduate drivers and advocacy personnel who move around town and far-flung places to advise residents on environmental issues.

    LAWMA Managing Director Ola Oresanya said the 46 female drivers initially engaged to drive the waste evacuation trucks have shown an uncommon tenderness in handling the vehicles. This, he said, has encouraged the organisation to consider hiring more hands.

    The job creation services of the agency is also targetting divers and swimmers to clean the ocean views and the riverine areas.

    The process of job creation at LAWMA is evolving, according to Oresanya, who also disclosed that the agency has established a recycling plant at the 20-year-old dumpsite at Olusosun, Oregun, Ikeja. He said the plant can create jobs for thousands of youths directly and indirectly.

    He said: “The 42.7 hectares site has been efficiently re-fitted with the installation of plastic/nylon recycling warehouse, odour neutralisers and mobile atomisers and construction of fuel bay and access roads to make the site convenient for those who will work there.”

    He explained that the landfill site receives an average of 300 trucks of waste daily, which are weighed at the weigh bridge to ascertain the quantity of waste coming into the site per truck. He said every aspect of LAWMA activity creates jobs.

    The LAWMA boss said the waste-to-electricity project in markets is a job spinner as people will be employed to collect the waste and also work in the conversion process that will generate electricity to all the markets in the state. He said Ikosi Market is benefiting from it as it has been energised from wastes collected. He spoke of the readiness of the agency to replicate this in other locations.

    He said: “These infrastructural developments have been of tremendous benefit to the proper management of waste at the landfill. It has helped in the upgrading of the site and improvement of the accessibility of refuse trucks and compactors servicing the site. This has resulted to the reduction of the traffic congestion on adjoining roads and, in the process, creating huge employment opportunities for Lagosians.”

    Oresanya stated that at the handover of newly-purchased skip trucks by the state government to LAWMA, the female drivers had recorded zero accidents with the vehicles compared with their male counterparts.

    Besides, he said the female drivers were more friendly and considerate of other road users. They are also enthusiastic about their job. He noted that the decision to engage them was in line with Governor Babatunde Fashola’s focus on women empowerment in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

    “Three years ago, we brought in women to drive our trucks on an experimental basis. I am proud to say the experiment has been a huge success,” he said.

    The LAWMA boss said the female drivers were trained for six months at the Lagos Drivers’ Institute before they were given the vehicles to handle, adding that the organisation was using them as models for their male counterparts.

    Commissioner for the Environment Tunji Bello, who handed over the vehicles to the LAWMA female drivers, said the skip trucks would be suitable for evacuating waste in inner and narrow streets, and from communal pick spots where compactors could not easily get to.

    He said the state government was an ‘equal opportunity employer’ and would support the female drivers, who would operate the skip trucks, to explore their potential with adequate healthcare facilities and insurance packages.

    Bello said: “To Lagos residents, this is your tax in action. When we started our environmental revolution efforts, a lot of people doubted us. But we have been waxing stronger. We are not only interested in the highbrow areas, but everywhere in the state.

    “The residents owe it a duty to pay for the evacuation of their refuse so that we can reinvest the money in building capacity to serve them better.”

     

  • ‘How we’ll light up markets with wastes’

    ‘How we’ll light up markets with wastes’

    THE Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) is set to convert biodigestal wastes to methane to propel electricity generation in markets.

    The Managing Director of LAWMA, Mr Ola Oresanya, said the agency has begun a pilot scheme in Ketu Fruit Market to convert the organic waste generated in the market to electricity through a 1.5 KVA generating set that supplies energy needs in the market.

    He said the market was chosen because it has 100 per cent organic waste, which is easily converted to methane first, then, to electricity.

    He also said another method is thermal conversion, which makes wastes to burn faster in the process of generating electricity.

    He said the state was well-positioned to generate electricity from wastes due to its huge population of about 16 million people.

    Oresanya said the Olusosun dumpsite was generating electricity through the landfill site gas project which it intended to replicate on all landfill sites.The LAWMA boss also said from next year, the state would start earning income through carbon credit in line with the Kyoto Protocol.

    He said LAWMA has created an enabling environment/platform for wastes recycling with the reclamation of land at Olusosun landfill site for interested investors.

    The most recent rehabilitation at the landfill is the 1.3-kilometre service road begun in December 2011. It was completed last April. The road is composed of well- graded and compacted laterite fill to one metre thickness, and stone base of 1,000 metres, among other features.

    Practical gas extractor pipes are being installed and drilling is ongoing for more pipes installation. Also, the landfill site of about 42.7 hectares of land receives an average of 300 trucks of wastes daily.

    They are weighed to ascertain the quantity of waste going into the landfill.

  • Lagos advises LAWMA sweepers on service delivery, safety

    Lagos advises LAWMA sweepers on service delivery, safety

    •We want insurance cover, medicare

    Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola has urged the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) on the need to evolve solutions that will enhance service delivery in the face of high vehicular traffic and population growth.

    He spoke at the fourth sensitisation and awareness programme for stakeholders. He asked them to take advantage of the annual training/workshop to interact with stakeholders to boost service delivery.

    Fashola, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, said: “ You are a major stakeholder on our road and l want to implore you to get familiar with the new traffic laws of the state. You are also expected to discharge your duties with sense of discipline as frontline officer in public service delivery. At all times, you are expected to demonstrate polite attitude towards the taxpaying citizens who are our employer.”

    He asked them to exemplify tolerance, humility, temperament in the face of provocation and abuse by the public.

    The Commissioner for the Environment, Mr Tunji Bello, said the sweepers are a major component in the bid by the state to eliminate the litter caused by ‘pure water’ sachets from the roads to the dump sites. He commended them for their invaluable contributions, which formed the pedestal for the workshop to protect them from road hazards by careless drivers and other road users.

    Bello, who was represented by the Special Adviser to the Governor on the Environment, Mr Taofeek Folami, said the workshop is an avenue for roles’ reappraisal and help towards the implementation of the various enhancement strategies planned by LAWMA.

    Earlier in his speech, LAWMA’ Managing Director, Ola Oresanya, said the street sweepers scheme was initially a poverty alleviation programme with the recruitment of over 10,000 persons who were deployed for intensive daily sweeping to achieve a clean environment in the state. He said their achievements on the state highways were being complemented through the introduction of marine services that are responsible for cleaning of shorelines and canals.

    Oresanya said their achievements have endeared them to not only the international community, but also corporate bodies who have extended grants and donations to them.

    However, he noted that though the programmme have lived up to its bidding, it has nevertheless, faced challenges in areas, such as the risk of infection and accidents on the highway due to the careless attitude of some motorists and motorcycle riders.

    As a way forward, the LAWMA boss disclosed the agency has completed arrangements to train some supervisors in the United Kingdom to broaden their knowledge in modern ways of cleaning the streets.

    Chairman, Service Providers Forum of LAWMA, Mr Akin Adewole, commended the governor for keeping his promise in raising the salary of the sweepers.

    On their challenges, he said the most daunting is that of medical care, recklessness of commercial drivers, which has resulted in deaths and permanent injuries to their members. He made a case for an insurance policy to encourage the sweepers.

  • LAWMA raises alarm on rail line refuse dumping

    Desirous of continually combating the menace of waste in Lagos metropolis, the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has called on residents, especially those living along Rail-corridors to desist from dumping refuse on the rail line.

    In a statement, LAWMA frowned at the attitude of some residents who engage in the obnoxious act of dumping refuse along such a sensitive location.

    The statement warned that such attitude is capable of spreading diseases and defacing the environment if not checked.

    The statement read in part: “Railway transportation in the State eases the burden of transportation for a reasonable percentage of the populace and dumping garbage along those lines can hamper its efficiency and safety as a means of transportation”.

    While emphasising government’s commitment towards effective waste management, the Authority warned that anyone caught violating the environmental sanitation laws through such illegal dumping will face the full wrath of the law.

    In the same vein, the Authority reaffirmed its call on people who own properties and shops on major roads and highways to comply with government’s directive to secure covered containers for proper disposal of their refuse.

    Highlighting the measures put in place, the statement disclosed that the activities of sweepers in the State is being expanded to cover the hinterlands, while local policing are being assigned to such spots for effective monitoring.