The Managing Director/CEO of the Lagos Waste Management Authority, (LAWMA), Mr. Ibrahim Odumboni, has charged residents of Apapa and its environs on the need to take proactive steps to rid the environment of illegal dumpsites and eradicate indiscriminate waste disposal practices.
Odumboni gave the charge at Apapa Local Government Secretariat venue of the inaugural stakeholders’ meeting and public sensitisation with residents and other participants, imploring them to create a formidable waste policing team for effective monitoring of illegal waste disposal.
While informing that similar stakeholders’ meeting will be held in all the 57 Local Governments and Local Council Development Areas of the State, he declared that the time has come for the Authority to fully engage with residents and all stakeholders to rid Lagos of filth and establish a new regime of cleanliness and sustainable environment across the metropolis.
His words: “It is high time the community incorporates local policing to checkmate the activities of cart pushers prevalent in Apapa. Ibeju-Lekki and Epe Local Governments have done this successfully. You can achieve this too by engaging your youths to man specific areas notorious for cart-pushing businesses, to arrest the perpetrators. This is the way to go”.
The Managing Director also enjoined the people to shun indiscriminate dumping into canals and drainage channels, while encouraging residents to key into recycling by separating their waste at source in order to make additional income.
In her remarks, the Chairman of Apapa Local Government, Ms. Idowu Sebanjo, lauded the effort of LAWMA for confronting the menace of sundry environmental infractions in the Council, promising that all needed support would be given by her administration to return the hitherto aesthetics and allure of the metropolitan community.
Also speaking, the Ojora of Ijora, Oba Fatai Aromire, represented by Baale of Apapa, Mr. Akeem Obara, commended the Authority’s effort towards ensuring a cleaner environment, noting that the stakeholders’ meeting was a call to action that is long overdue.
He implored the stakeholders to be more environmentally conscious, especially market women, by owning a bin for waste containerisation and pleaded with the PSPs to make waste tariffs convenient for residents to aid easy compliance.
Various stakeholders took turns to x-ray the situation and challenges, all promising to work towards achieving the ultimate objective of a clean and alluring Apapa Local Government.
In attendance were the Vice Chairman, Apapa Local Government, Alhaji Ganiu Ismail; Apapa APC Chairman, Alhaji Fatai Sanni; Executive Director of LAWMA, Mr. Kunle Adebiyi; senior management staff of the Authority; PSP operators assigned to the axis, market leaders and CDA/CDC executives among other dignitaries.
