Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has allayed the fears of residents over the resurgence of waste on major highways and streets across the state.
He also assured them that the state government is on top of the situation and working round the clock to ensure the challenge becomes a thing of the past.
Governor Ambode said this on Saturday after inaugurating a new board of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) headed by a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police as Corps Marshal, Daniel Isiofia, at Lagos House in Ikeja.
He said the new waste management policy of the government encapsulated in the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI) was designed to holistically address the challenges in the sector, and that all hands were already on deck to confront the initial hitches with the transition period.
The governor, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh, explained that adequate officials of LAGESC transformed from the former Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), have been employed to monitor all nooks and crannies of the state.
According to him, they also have a responsibility to curb indiscriminate dumping of waste as well as other acts inimical to clean, hygienic, and sustainable environment.
Ambode noted that concerted efforts were ongoing to clear the heaps of refuse across the metropolis, and assured residents that there would be marked improvement in coming days.
He said: “We are all living witnesses to the restructuring we are trying to do in the environmental sector. That restructuring culminated in the introduction of CLI which is focused on ensuring that the way we clean Lagos is comparable to what is being done in first-class cities in the world.
“As a result, we are changing the way environment in Lagos is being managed and to help us to achieve that, this Sanitation Corp is important. But more importantly now is to speak to the fact that yes, we are having some challenges in the area of waste management in Lagos today. We all live in Lagos, but I want to reaffirm that we are doing everything to ensure that this becomes a thing of the past.”
The Governor, who recalled similar challenges in the state in 1999 under the administration of Mr Bola Tinubu, was optimistic in the workability of the new initiative, saying that the challenges with the teething stages would soon be over.
“Let me assure the people that in the coming weeks, there will be an improvement; we are already witnessing a high-level of improvement,” he said.
“We promise that throughout this week and throughout next week, people will see a marked improvement in our state as more equipment come into the country and we are able to deploy the equipment accordingly.
“But beyond the fact that we are clearing waste, the CLI is also ensuring that we have landfill sites – not dumping sites – but landfill sites where the waste we are generating in Lagos can be recycled, re-engineered and also resold so that we can create wealth and a new business for Lagosians to tap into,” the governor was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Habib Aruna.
