In a renewed effort to stop indiscriminate dumping of refuse in unauthorised places, the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) is clamping down on cart pushers across the metropolis.
The agency said on Monday that it seized and destroyed over 400 carts from pushers, who serially dumped refuse at unauthorised locations in clear violation of the state environmental laws.
Ibrahim Odumboni, managing director/CEO, LAWMA, said on Monday that the clampdown which would be sustained was to stop the cart pushers from illegal refuse dumping and destruction of the aesthetics of the metropolis.
Odumboni said cart pushers pose a threat not only to environmental sustainability but to the security of residents, as many cart pushers harbour dangerous weapons like knives, machetes, and others, to perpetrate criminal activities.
“Cart pushers are about the biggest threat to our effort at attaining environmental sustainability. We will not allow anyone or group of persons to derail the ongoing efforts to make the environment better. Criminal elements have hidden under this guise to carry out heinous crimes. If there are no carts to push, they will get other jobs.”
“They pose as much threat to the environment as to the security of the citizens. It will shock you to know that many of them keep weapons like knives, machetes, etc, in their carts to attack and dispossess unsuspecting persons when the opportunity presents itself,” he said.
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Opportunities were open for repentant cart-pushers, to step forward, get registered with LAWMA, be given proper orientation, and trained as pickers and off-takers of recyclables, working hand in hand with other stakeholders in the waste management chain.
LAWMA maintained that the government was not interested in taking away their means of livelihood but that their operations must be within the confines of the law.
Odumboni reaffirmed LAWMA’s commitment to making the state’s city space an environment-friendly one, urging residents to join the authority’s quest for a cleaner Lagos by shunning improper waste disposal, paying their waste bills, and patronising assigned PSP operators.
