THE CHALLENGE OF WASTE MANAGEMENT IN LAGOS

03 Aug THE CHALLENGE OF WASTE MANAGEMENT IN LAGOS

Government Insincerity to Waste Management Issues

The saying that our authorities are good in developing policies but naive in implementation can be aptly illustrated in the less than satisfactory result the National Policy on Environment 1989 achieved. Heralded as a well thought out program with the goal of raising awareness for waste management; highlighting the link between development and environment, and encouraging community participation in waste management. Basically, collection and disposal of waste in environmentally responsible manners and set up laws to ensure this goal will be reached. Prior, environmental sanitation practice which was introduced in 1984 as one of the War Against Indiscipline laws during the military regime aimed at encouraging environmental consciousness was largely unsuccessful due to the poor disposal infrastructure across the country. Currently, Nigeria generates about 32 million tons of waste and Lagos Waste Management Agency (LAWMA) collects only about 30% of it according to bioenergy.com. Furthermore, the collected waste is not properly disposed of. Garbage trucks simply relocate waste to these hazardous dump sites or dump them in the Atlantic Ocean. In 2017, another major policy trust was initiated, this time by the immediate past administration of Governor Ambode and was christened The Cleaner Lagos Initiative. The policy sought to reform and improve the solid waste management sector, closing a number of dump sites around Lagos to manage the issue of drain blockage and dumping waste in gutters and on roads. A public-private partnership with an environmental utility group was announced to build sanitary landfill depots in Mushin, Lagos Island, and recently a completed one in Ogudu under the Cleaner Lagos initiative supervised by the Lagos State Waste Management Initiative. However, despite the accolades the vision garnered, it suffered a stillbirth as political gladiators felt marginalized.

Beyond internal waste, Nigeria is one of the largest importers of second-hand electronic materials. At least half of the 600,000 tons of electronic equipment imported into Nigeria are second hand e-waste, with Lagos as the city with the largest second-hand materials port in the country. According to Aljazeera, these electronic items are broken and torn apart for gold and other valuable materials. This practice releases toxic chemicals from the way they are disposed of. They are either dumped on land or in the ocean or burnt, all of which would lead to negative health and environmental issues.

The Way Forward

Government at all levels is expected to chip in their fair bit in making contingent environmental policies and summon the political will to follow it through. Policy inconsistencies and structural issues over the years have eroded trust and alienated citizen’s participation in the fight to preserve our environment thus exacerbated already precarious situations in rural communities where access to sanitation and clean water are sorely lacking. Proper urban planning and waste recycling policies should be pursued with the aim of building settlements with effective waste management infrastructures. Recycling industries should be incentivized to set up in rural communities as many people think it is unprofitable as the recycling points and collectors are mostly in the urban areas and virtually unknown to the people within these communities, but commercial and material goods like residue, plastic, and the likes, are sold and used within these communities and then end in gutters or burnt, causing further environmental and health hazards. Through sensitization, people are willing to engage in environmentally friendly disposal practices, but lack of efficient disposal mechanisms makes it difficult and near impossible. It might be impossible to change habits and use of materials without implementing higher taxes or ban of these products and adequate disposal mechanisms.

Beginning with environmental consciousness within schools, organizations and public spaces may be the best way to reach large groups. The government is responsible for providing better waste disposal materials and management infrastructure, but it is not the responsibility of the government alone. The UN recognized the health risks of poor sanitation as a major sustainable development limitation. Being more conscious about where our materials come from, holding corporations and organizations responsible for their waste and supporting the organizations making the effort might be the support needed to improve the quality of life and perhaps satisfy the SDG requirements.