Waste collection operators, otherwise known as Private Sector Participants (PSPs) in Lagos, are resuming the responsibility of domestic waste collection.
Against this back ground, Visionscape Sanitation Solutions, the municipal waste manager with which the Lagos State government signed a deal in 2017, now has the mandate of implementing waste management infrastructure development across the state, in addition to intervening in public waste collection to cover any service lapses that may occur.
The waste management agreement between Lagos State and Visionscape had excluded the PSP operators from involvement in domestic waste collection, thus leading to heaps of waste in different parts of the state, as Visionscape was seen lacking in capacity to cope with the over 13,000 tons of waste generated daily in Lagos.
In a meeting last weekend with the PSP operators, former governor, Bola Tinubu, had chided the state government, and advised that PSP operators be brought back.
Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti, commissioner for the environment, said on Wednesday, in Ikeja, that as part of this reform, the Lagos State Public Works Corporation would oversee drainage management across the state, while the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) and the Public Utilities Monitoring and Assurance Unit (PUMAU) would both focus on enforcement and monitoring.
According to Durosinmi-Etti, LAGESC will handle enforcement of law against illegal dumping and fly-tipping, while PUMAU will track and control the payment of fees as well as supervise collection operations.
All this, according to the commissioner, is in the effort to rid the state of filth and heaps of waste that now adorn the streets, assuring that before heavy rains set in, the waste challenge would be total resolved.
