The Nation Newspaper

Tag: waste collection

  • Lagos revs waste collection with TLS

    Lagos revs waste collection with TLS

    •Firm injects N18b in first phase

    VIsionscape Sanitation Solutions (VSS) has inaugurated the Tapa Transfer Loading Station (TLS) in Lagos.

    The facility located on Saviour’s Street, Epetedo area of Lagos Island, will serve as one of the many hubs strategically located throughout the state that will enable Visionscape deposit waste from the city limits to the landfills after processing.

    The Tapa TLS is the first completed TLS by the firm.The company is renovating other stations in Mushin, Agege and Oshodi to provide integrated waste management solutions for treating municipal solid waste and wastewater under the Cleaner Lagos Initiative. In the first phase of the CLI, the firm   invested $50 million (N18.05 billion).

    “Transfer Loading Stations are the unsung heroes in the waste management supply-chain; they’re fundamental in driving efficiency into waste collection and transportation services. The TLS will serve as the middleman between waste collection vehicles and the final disposal facilities,” the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Visionscape, Mr. Thomas Forgacs, said.

    During a tour of the facility, VSS assured Lagos residents of the timely collection and disposal of the tonnes of domestic solid waste generated daily in the state. The transfer stations will receive 6,700 tons of waste daily. The facilities will feature a central tipping bay, a waste reception bay, administrative buildings and waste processing bay.

    The company has also taken delivery of a consignment of a fleet of 100 brand new waste management vehicles embedded with cutting-edge technology.

    “The addition to the waste management fleet is in line with our commitment to provide integrated waste management services, using state-of-the-art equipment and innovative solutions to help transform megacities. In the last six months, we have surveyed all of Lagos State and collated vital data to aid operations. We, therefore, understand population density of the communities and areas that will be serviced, even up to the number of streets and households across the State. This preliminary assessment has aided us to know the amount of waste that will be generated in any particular location,” Forgacs said.

    SWM Integrated Solutions Executive Director, Mrs. Tolagbe Martins, explained that the promoters had been engaged in cleaning about 1,000 black spots within the metropolis and carted away 80,000 tons of refuse, with the deployment of 600 galvanised waste bins.

    Besides, VSS, she said, would be deploying more 3,000 galvanised waste bins to parts of the state next week, and that in two months, the body was expected to deploy 20,000 galvanised waste bins across the state.

    Also to be deployed is one million plastic bins across the state, including sweepers to various parts of the state as from next.

    “The Cleaner Lagos Initiative is creating an enabling environment. Before now, there was only a focus on disposal and no system to support the waste beyond collection. The collection is the beginning of the cycle, and the CLI is providing a world class sanitation structure that includes mechanised sweeping by trained community sanitation workers; transfer loading stations; sorting and recycling; innovative waste bins; regular waste collection and more. We are pleased to inform you that the work which has been going on over the past 15 months is rolling out now,” Tolagbe said.

    The Ministry of the Environment Permanent Secretary, Mr. Abiodun Bamgboye, said the firm has shown “commitment to developing and implementing advanced processes in solid waste and wastewater management operations with an innovative approach. Their state-of-the-art TLS’s will be a game changer in our sector”.

    The CLI was established to address, enforce and regulate the challenges in the solid waste management systems within Lagos. The initiative is focused on improving the environment to make it cleaner, safer and healthier for Lagos residents, as well as developing efficiency.

    Visionscape is in a public-private partnership with the government, set to provide management services for the CLI, under the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA).

     

  • ‘Waste collection can boost economic growth’

    A chieftain of Ogun State Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (OGUNCCIMA), Mrs. Cynthnia Saka, has said there  were job  opportunities in recycling .

    She  said  waste collection business  can create new jobs, which according to her, include municipal collection, sorting, recycling, and secondary use of waste. To her, jobs linked to waste management are increasing  with  growing activities in collection and recycling.

    The current economic recovery plans, she  added, should  provide a short-term stimulus for creating jobs and boosting the economy. She called for implementation of strategies  and   long-term re-orientation of the economy to a model that promotes wealth generation.

    According to her, policies put in place by the  government  should seek  to support viable food production, with a particular focus on income support for farmers and  boost employment and growth and tackle poverty in rural areas.

    She said the infrastructure sector should receive greater attention as the government was keen on stepping up investment despite a challenging fiscal situation.

    Mrs Saka urged the government to deliver greater policy support for the  waste and recycling sector,  featuring stronger tax incentives to encourage the use of recycled materials, greater harmonisation of collection systems, and more ambitious green procurement rules.

    According to her, the waste management sector has a lot to offer the economy, but more government support, according to her, was needed in the face of depressed commodity markets.

  • Oyo govt, residents trade words over waste collection, management

    Oyo govt, residents trade words over waste collection, management

    The presence of   heaps of refuse in some strategic locations in the city of Ibadan, Oyo State has become a cause for concern to the state government Oseheye Okwuofu, reports

    we don’t have a designated place to dispose our waste. If there is container or big tanks meant for refuse collection we will not be seeing our people dumping refuse on the roads. Help us tell the government to provide containers around, especially thickly populated areas like market and residential areas so that the people will not throw their waste on the roads again. It’s not the fault of the people. Like the Thursday environmental sanitation, people were asked to clean their environment and the waste will be packed in bags and brought out to the roads so that the waste collectors will easily pick them but for days you will not see the collectors, leaving the environment messed up. So, let the government help the people to keep a safer and cleaner environment, that is what I am saying,” a market trader in Bodija Food market, Mrs Serifat Adeogun said.

    Many people who spoke their minds on the need for safe and clean environment shared Serifat’s sentiment. In some areas, the road medians have been turned into waste dump sites following the failure of the waste collectors to pick up the refuse promptly in different parts of the city.

    In most places visited last Tuesday, the road medians were lined up with bags of refuse, especially in major roads that lead to the city. These routes leading into the city, it was gathered are constituting threats to health of the people.

    Investigation revealed that areas like Odo-Ona,  Monatan, old Ife road, Oojo road, Iwo road and Sango-Poly road amongst others are worst hit.

    The roads are often littered with refuse dumps.

    A resident of Idi-Ape, Iwo road area of the city who would not want his name mentioned in print commended the response of the residents to the Thursday state environmental exercise where dozens of refuse in bags were brought out of homes and kept on the road median waiting for the waste collectors to no avail.

    “And as am talking to you, the refuse of last Thursday environmental exercise are still there littered all over the place. Go to Monatan and the expressway entering Ibadan from Lagos, you will see the entire place littered with heaps of refuse. There is nobody to collect them and dump at the appropriate site.

    “So, where are the waste collection trucks provided by the Oyo State Waste Management Agency? It was not like this before when the governor started this exercise, before long the trucks have arrived and cleared the whole refuse which the people had collected and kept on the road median and everywhere was clean. But now, the tide has changed. It’s as if we are returning to the old days when Ibadan was adjudged as the dirtiest city in the country,” he said.

    The state government is equally worried about the growing heaps of refuse dumps in some strategic locations in Ibadan metropolis. It blamed it on people’s attitude to waste collection and disposal, saying it has a robust proposal to convert waste generated into energy.

    It said based on a preliminary investigation carried out, the waste generated in Ibadan metropolis can supply the entire city with adequate electricity if well harnessed.

    The Commissioner for Environment, Mr Ishola Isaac Adisa in a chat described the current situation as unfortunate. He said where the government was having problem is the area of enforcement of existing environmental laws due to the poor attitude of the people towards waste collection and disposal.

    “The government has so much interest in what happens in environment. In fact, the philosophy is a safe and clean environment because it will attract investors and guarantee a healthier environment. And the government has taken so much pro-active measures to ensure safe environment but the problem is that our people are not ready to comply by the rules and regulations for safe environment. The obligation of the people towards environment is everybody must not drop their waste except where it was provided and everybody must pay for the evacuation of the waste generated.

    “The government has put in place an arrangement to make our people accept responsibility for the waste they are generating, an arrangement that will enumerate the number of houses in Ibadan and make everybody to get private waste collectors,” he said.

    According to the Commissioner, the government has already accredited about 400 private waste collectors to ensure that all the refuse dumps were cleared without causing health hazard to the people.

    He further explained that private waste collectors were already allocated to every street and area while individual residents will have to pay a token for the government who will pay waste collectors for the services rendered.

    On the area of enforcement, Adisa noted that the government is planning to establish Neighbourhood Watch to monitor people in each community who drop waste illegally.

    He said “We are to engage the sanitation environmental officers and as I am talking to you, the governor has approved the engagement of these officers. They will wear uniforms and we will station them in strategic locations to see and monitor people dumping waste indiscriminately on major roads. For now, the governor has approved 300 sanitation officers to be engaged. A mobile task force that will include some security agencies will be patrolling the streets to ensure that we have strict compliance.”

    The Commissioner who called on the people to stop dumping waste on the roads, warned that the government would henceforth prosecute offenders. He disclosed that the government has already constituted ten environmental Court Tribunals and would soon commence sitting to prosecute anyone found violating environmental laws in the state.

     

  • Photo: Waste collection at Gwagwalada market

    Photo: Waste collection at Gwagwalada market