Health
Support PSP operators, build incinerators to end waste crisis, experts tell LASG
As Lagos continues to experience heavy downpours and grapples with persistent flooding and mounting heaps of uncollected waste in the marketplaces, by the roadside and on street corridors, food safety and environmental health advocates have called on the state government to improve waste coordination in the state by supporting the Private Sector Participation operators and building incineration plants.
In exclusive interviews with PUNCH Healthwise, the seasoned experts stressed the need for government-backed support for the waste collectors, improved coordination across waste management agencies, investment in recycling and incineration facilities, and sustained public education on proper waste disposal.
They also warned that unless drains and waterways are kept free of waste and refuse collection becomes more efficient, Lagos will continue to experience annual flooding, increasing outbreaks of diseases such as cholera, typhoid and malaria, as well as the loss of lives and property.
PUNCH Healthwise earlier reported that many Lagos residents had complained about heaps of uncollected refuse, leaving many streets littered with waste and creating foul odours.
With rainfall intensifying and heavier downpours forecast by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, flooding has already inundated houses, streets, vehicles and other property in several local government areas and communities across Lagos.
Lately, PUNCH Healthwise reported that the heavy rain of June 28 led to the demise of a six-year-old girl in the Oshodi area of Lagos State.
Several videos and reports also show areas with overwhelmed drainage systems, with many communities struggling with flooded roads and uncollected refuse.
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had in June ordered an immediate scale-up of waste evacuation operations across the state following complaints by residents over heaps of refuse littering roads, medians and communities.
He had assured residents that additional trucks and personnel had been deployed to tackle the refuse challenge.
However, shortly after the directive, PUNCH Healthwise reported that the refuse heap at the popular 𝐎𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐛𝐨 food market in the Ebute Metta area of the state was yet to be removed.
Commenting on the matter, a consumer rights advocate and Founder of the Consumer Advocacy for Food Safety and Nutrition Initiative, Prof Olugbenga Ogunmoyela, said the government must move beyond reacting to waste crises and instead build sustainable systems that prevent them.
He traced the source of the mounting waste crisis along roadsides and markets to the breakdown of many PSP contractors’ vehicles, stating that it reflects planning failures rather than isolated operational challenges.
The professor of Food Science and Technology noted that the current waste evacuation model, which relies on Private Sector Participation operators, is sound but has not been adequately supported by the government.
Ogunmoyela further said the government should provide stronger institutional support to the operators, including helping them maintain and refurbish their vehicles.
“In my judgment, the government is taking steps to address the problem and did not plan to avoid the problem. The government ought to have taken steps to avoid a problem like this. Instead of the government buying waste disposal trucks, they contracted it to PSP contractors, which is a good model, because they become your partners in waste evacuation, but to make such an arrangement sustainable, they must see that as a partnership and not just as a contract.
“As a matter of fact, before they got to this stage, the government ought to have created a plan that would enable them to support them so that as their vehicles are ageing, they would be able to buy replacement vehicles.
“All the trucks that are already getting old, there is no reason the government cannot set up a refurbishing yard and begin to refurbish these vehicles under some kind of arrangement. What is the responsibility of Lagos Waste Management Authority as a representative of the government to ensure something like this is prevented? You don’t just leave the PSP operators to their fate in an economy where devaluation has made it difficult for anyone to buy a vehicle now. The government ought to have anticipated these problems before they got to a crisis situation like this,” the don said.
The food safety advocate further said authorities should have anticipated the heavy rainfall predicted for this year and acted earlier by clearing the drainage.
He stated that the consequent flooding, further worsened by the unpacked waste and clogged drainages, could cause a public health and environmental crisis.
“We cannot see any improvement because drains are blocked with waste that has been dumped into them, leaving them clogged. Apart from posing serious health risks, they also constitute an environmental nuisance. It is unacceptable to say nothing can be done until the rainy season is over. That position is simply not tenable.
“One immediate solution is for the government to mobilise vehicles to temporarily evacuate the waste. It can also collaborate with banks to develop a support plan for Private Sector Participation operators, even if that requires facilitating government-backed loan agreements.”
“It seems as if the buses and the PSP trucks are breaking down and no longer functional. What are we doing? How did we get to this situation? This requires an emergency plan,” Ogunmoyela stressed.
Continuing, the consumer’s rights advocate said, “The present state of heavy flooding and heavy and incessant rainfall all over Lagos severely threatens public health and food safety by overwhelming the drainage systems, causing raw sewage and refuse to contaminate both surface water and shallow well systems.
“This contamination significantly spikes the risk of waterborne and vector-borne diseases like cholera, typhoid, and malaria.”
He stressed that maintaining a clean environment should be treated as a fundamental consumer right.
Ogunmoyela asserted, “A Clean Environment is a Consumer Right! We need to constantly remind the government!”
Also speaking, the President of the Africa Environmental Health Organisation, Abiodun Afolabi, said stronger coordination across all levels of government remains critical to solving Nigeria’s waste management challenges.
He noted that Lagos’ growing population has intensified waste generation, stating that while government efforts to procure additional waste trucks were commendable, efficient deployment and management of waste in the state.
Afolabi said, “Ideally, every two days, waste must be removed to the dumpsite, and if there is inadequate coordination to take the waste out of sight to the dumpsite where it should be, it will constitute a nuisance and return to places where it is not supposed to be.
“Proper coordination is very vital; regular waste picking from households, markets and other collection points is very important, and the proper use of resources is key.”
Afolabi also advocated waste sorting at source and stronger recycling systems and urged the government to invest in waste-to-energy infrastructure.
“I’ll recommend that the state acquire an incineration facility. When you go to Addis Ababa and other parts of the world, they have an incineration facility; I don’t think we have any in Nigeria.
“It is not all waste that can be recycled and reused. Some waste needs to go to the incineration plant. Also, coordination of recycling facilities can be done in an incineration plant.
“If we can have three to four incineration facilities, it will help to address the waste. This needs to be addressed holistically, and the government should make provision for it.”
On preventing annual flooding, Afolabi said public compliance with proper waste disposal practices must improve, advocating increased sensitisation on household and community sanitation.
He warned that flooding increases the spread of diseases, contaminates water sources and destroys property.
“The public health implication of flooding has to do with the issue of disease spread, the contamination of water sources, environmental conditions, destruction of properties are the public health issues.
“That is why public sensitisation is necessary to ensure compliance with state laws and regulations. Also, if there are no policy directions on flooding and waste management, they should be worked on to ensure clean and safer communities,” Afolabi said.
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