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Tag: Waste managers

  • Waste managers to withdraw service over N650m debt

    Waste managers to withdraw service over N650m debt

    • Govt: we’re making plans to pay

    Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAMN), Ogun State chapter, yesterday warned that its members may stop keeping the state clean; following the over N650million debt owed them by the government.

    Read Also: Too early to expect perfection from Tinubu – Gowon

    It said besides the debt, which had crippled members’ businesses; waste dumpsites in parts of the state were no longer accessible because of their deplorable conditions, while the cost of waste evacuation from homes, streets and highways to dumpsites had skyrocketed.

    Addressing reporters in Abeokuta in company with members, the state Chairman of AWAMN, Jolaoluwa Gbenga, urged Governor Dapo Abiodun-led government to offset the debt arrears, which, he said, put over 1,000 direct and indirect jobs on the line, should they close shops due to lack of funds to continue operations.

    Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Ola Oresanya, said government is aware of the predicament of the workers and is already taking steps to ensure they are paid in a matter of days.

  • Waste managers accuse Lagos Govt of neglect

    The Vice Chairman of the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAM), Lagos Chapter, Mr. David Oriyomi, has accused the state government of abandoning them, saying it has thrown some of its members out of business. Over 25, 000 jobs are threatened, he said.

    In an interactive session with the media at the AWAM secretariat, Oriyomi recalled that in 2016, the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI) was introduced with the intention of a foreign company, Visionscape, taking over the residential waste collection from 350  indigenous businesses. This, he explained, shocked the PSP operators as there was no consultation whatsoever with them

    Besides, he noted that the policy, if implemented, it would have resulted in massive business closure, leading to majority of the PSP operators’ over 25,000 employees losing their jobs.

    “We made frantic efforts to see and appeal to His Excellency, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, but to no avail,” Oriyomi said, adding that this led to the litigation by the PSP to protect their investments.

    The PSP, he said, was irked that after various false starts dates by the government and the concessionaire, the initiative was launched by placing bins indiscriminately across the state, with very little provision to evacuate the heaps of waste.

    The situation, Oriyomi claimed, is responsible for the increase in the volume of waste on the highways and medians.

    “Our city was returned to pre-1999 era and the once celebrated clean city has now become one of the dirtiest cities in the World,” he said.

    More annoying, he said, is that Visionscape offered their job back to them as a sub-contractor, with uneconomically and unsustainable terms. “This was outrightly rejected by us as we considered it to be economic slavery. Visionscape used arm-twisting techniques to engage a few of our members,” Oriyomi lamented.

    He said his members appealed to the government, the House of Assembly, Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and finally to the leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.  This culminated in the April 27, 2018, protest by the PSP to Tinubu’s residence, where he urged the association members to remain peaceful.

    “Tinubu promised to consult with the party chiefs, the House of Assembly and the governor, with the view to resolving this matter and restoring our job which will, in turn, result in better environment. We assured him that upon restoration and addressing the major issue of the dumpsites we are committed to the restoration of our state. We left with revitalised hope to clean up our city, but sadly, it has been five months after Asiwaju’s intervention and the uncertainty still persist,” Oriyomi said.

  • Waste managers sue govt, firm over environmental law

    Two members of the Lagos State Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria have gone to court to challenge the Environmental Management Protection Law 2017.

    Alhaji Oladipo Egbeyemi and Mr. David Oriyomi are asking the court to nullify the law, particularly Part 111 of the Environmental Management and Protection Law 2017. The provision seeks to regulate the management, control and administration of refuse, sewage and waste disposal along other incidental and ancillary matters in the state. They argued that the action was inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution as amended.

    In the suit filed at the Lagos High Court, they observed that Part 111 of the environmental law, particularly Sections 42, 53, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63 and 64, which seeks to empower the Ministry of Environment and 5the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA)   to control, regulate, and administer refuse, sewage and waste disposal in the state was inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution.

    They urged the court  to compel the state government, the Attorney-General  and the State House of Assembly to comply with Section 7(5) and Paragraph (H) of the 4th Schedule of the 1999 Constitution  and vest the control, management, operations and regulation  of all wastes and refuse in the State on the Local Governments.

    The businessmen also want the court to restrain the 1st -5th Respondents “from further violating, deviating from or in any other manner, defying the provisions of Paragraph ‘H’ of the 4th Schedule to the 1999 Constitution through the implementation of Part 111 of the Lagos State Environmental Management and Protection Law 2017 in respect to the operation, management and regulation of all wastes, sewage and refuse in Lagos State.”

     

  • PSP operators to Ambode: bring waste managers together

    THE Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWMAN) have urged Governor Akinw unmi Ambode to bring operators, including Visionscape Sanitation Solution, together to fashion out the best way to deal with waste.

    The operators suggested a six-point agenda to help the sanitary condition of the state. It includes waste being tackled at the point of generation by enforcing the government’s policy of door-to-door collection; ensuring that dumpsites are accessible, especially during the rains; massive advocacy and enlightenment programmes for the people and enforcement of sanitation practices of bagging and containerisation of wastes.

    Others are: sustainable enforcement for non-compliance to house-to-house disposal and non-payment as well as the need for  stakeholders to avoid creating division in waste management.

    “We are proud of being responsible for making Lagos a clean state, but we are saddened to see wastes return to our beloved city. Besides, we are not ready to yield to official blackmail but rather, to adhere strictly to continue work, despite the air of uncertainty that surrounded this sector in the past two years, especially, the state of dumpsites,” Egbeyemi said.

    Similarly, a member of the rival group, under the aegis of Concerned Waste Collectors (CWC), Mrs. Bamidele Hussein, while praising Ambode for allowing her group to stay, claimed that it’s their love for the state that made them to resume activities and not the desire to make money.

    Responding to AWMAN’s allegation, she accused the CWC of betraying the struggle for better business climate, Mrs Hussein said the former were not being considerate.

    “Yes, all of us went to court at the beginning of this struggle. But having realised that we want to jeopardise the health of our people by not collecting wastes, and for the fact the government has agreed with some of our terms, the most responsible thing is to go back to work, which our partners refused to do,” she said.

  • Edo to train waste managers

    EDO State Government has said it would train waste managers and officials of the Edo State Waste Management Board(ESWMB) workforce as part of processes towards making the state the cleanest in the country.

    This, it said, was part of plans to achieving environmental sustainability.

    The blueprint for the training was unveiled at a one day retreat on “The New Waste Management Reform and implementation Strategy”, put together by the Committee on Project Clean Up Edo.

    Represented by Chairman, Strategic Planning Unit, Prof Julius Ihonvbere, Governor Godwin Obaseki said he understood the issue of waste management and was passionate to provide resources and materials.

    Obaseki stated that a clean environment has a direct link with boosting tourism, health and investment.

    He warned that there would be no room for compromise stating: “we want to see results, a departure from the past”.

    He pointed out that the retreat was to enable participants come up with holistic strategy on how to achieve the set goals to keep the state clean.

    ‘’Government will be walking softly but holding a big stick to ensure compliance through enforcement,” he said.

  • Waste managers protest environment bill

    Waste managers protest environment bill

    For the second time in a week, the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria, (AWAM), yesterday protested to the Lagos State House of Assembly, over the new bill seeking to merge about eight environment laws in the state into one.
    The Environmental Bill, which is currently before the Assembly, according to the protesters, would jeopardise their business if their suggestions at the public hearing are not incorporated into the bill.
    They carried placards with various inscriptions like; ‘Don’t kill our business’, ‘Protect SME’ etc.
    Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Mr Olalekan Owojori said the new investment the state government needs is in the area of dumpsites and landfills and not collection and transportation.
    According to him, Lagos is dirty because the dumpsites and landfills are not enough while those available are in terrible state.
    Owojori claimed that the government owes PSP operators over N1 billion, aside that the 60 per cent they are entitled to from the income has been reduced arbitrarily.
    He noted that operating under such “unfriendly atmosphere is killing motivation and business. It also affects the ability to operate smoothly with good trucks.”
    Owojori said they returned to the Assembly less than a week they protested because “we were both nervous and suspicious that the bill would be passed today (yesterday) without recourse to their submissions.
    He wondered why the Assembly is moving at a very fast pace in the passage of the bill, noting that under three days the bill passed through first and second reading and a public hearing.
    Owojori said Governor Akinwunmi Ambode met them once and it was not to hear their side rather to inform them of his new plans. He said rather than listen to them, the governor asked them to talk to the Commissioner for the Environment.
    The House Committee on the Environment chaired by Saka Fafunmi yesterday submitted the committee’s report on the bill at the plenary.
    The committee held the public hearing last Thursday.
    The next stage is for the House to debate the committee’s report, adopt it, take the third reading and pass the bill and all these processes could be accomplished next Thursday .
    Recall that the lawmakers suspended their six weeks recess to attend to the bill.