Stakeholders in the construction, environment, disaster and waste management are joining forces in Lagos to tackle wastes generated during construction and building demolition in the state.
The initiative being driven by the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) under its newly created unit- Construction, Demolition and Disaster Waste (CDDW), is designed to achieve proper waste sorting at construction and demolition sites as against the prevailing situation where such wastes are lumped together and dumped at landfill sites. The move is also to promote the waste recycling programme of the Lagos State government.
At a one-day forum to shape out the initiative and secure the buy-in of stakeholders, Tunji Bello, the Lagos State Commissioner for the environment and water resources, noted that the government would stop at nothing in devising strategies towards value creation and making the environment and life better for the people in view of the fact that natural disasters are inevitable.
“The state government is quite aware that the degrees or choice of management options deployed to waste is critical to climate change management, mitigation and adaptation and so, we are implementing this ‘green’ approach to waste management.
“These efforts are being concerted with due realisation that any omission or error that could be recorded in the adoption of options should not create new challenges; otherwise, the world eco-balance would be negatively affected. Whereas, we have the privilege of exploring workable and adaptable options to effectively and efficiently surmount and challenges.
LAWMA, therefore, is taking up the challenge of efficient management of CDDW,” said Bello, at the forum with theme, “creating values through responsible management of construction and demolition waste in Lagos State.”
According to Bello, whose speech was read by Muyiwa Gbadegesin, managing director/CEO of LAWMA, the CDDW initiative is not only timely but also a calculated step in contributing frontier approaches to construction and demolition waste management towards safety, livability and sustainability of human race and the environment.
Linking the initiative to the T,H.E.M.E.S. agenda of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu led administration, Bello said that effective waste management falls in line with the determination of the government to ensure a cleaner and healthier Lagos, adding “we have re-energized the solid waste management sector by promoting the concept of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle as a major thrust of waste management in the state.”
Gbadegesin, the LAWMA CEO, in his remark, said there had been several attempts in the past to engage the stakeholders in the construction and demolition sector, with a view to developing policies and strategies, as well as modalities that would create a mutually beneficial relationship for effective management of CDDW in Lagos State.
“Therefore it is with great pleasure that our past efforts have yielded positive result and here we are today, big players in the construction and demolition sector, poised to make a change and set the pace for effective management of CDDW,” he said.
According to him, the forum was expected to chart a new course into how CDDWs were managed efficiently and effectively in Lagos State, stating that for several years, the solid waste management had been centred around waste from households and that LAWMA, as a responsible and responsive agency of government deemed it fit to address construction, demolition and disaster waste for the benefit of all.
“These wastes arise from construction and demolition activities which includes human and non-human factors. It is practically impossible not to generate waste and the most important thing is to understand what happened to these wastes afterwards. We at LAWMA want to use this stakeholder’s forum to kick-start discussions around Construction, Demolition & Disaster Waste management with the intent to create policy directive for mutually beneficial partnership with other stakeholders,” he said.
The forum was also organised to provide stakeholders with the opportunity to analyse and identify business models in CDDW recycling, as well as measures to achieve a minimum of 30 percent (by weight) recycling target by 2022 of non-hazardous CDDW, excluding naturally occurring materials, among others.
