Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands

Clean up Nigerian boss speaks on waste management crisis in Lagos

Prince Ene Baba Owoh, jnr, Executive- Chairman, Clean Up Nigeria(an NGO)may not be a prophet, but his recent alarm that Lagos State is experiencing a waste management crisis, and is sitting on a keg of gunpowder could not have come at a better time, particularly with the alleged collapse of the Private Sector Participants (PSP). He speaks with OGBONNA ONWUMERE on a range of issues in waste disposal.

Waste management has become a perennial problem In this country, and Lagos in particular. What are the difficulties encountered by the government in the area of waste management?

Waste management on its own is both capital and economic intensive, which means huge capital outlay is required. Where there is availability of funds, the issue of waste management also has to be given priority. For instance, what is Lagos State budget for waste management? The large chunk of waste management in Lagos gulps between 20-25% of government funds on the average. We are working within a projected population of 130 million in Nigeria. In Lagos, for instance, we are working with a projected population of between 12-18 million.We do not need anybody to tell us that waste management should occupy priority position in Nigeria, because of the multiplier effects. Apart from funding, there is another important problem -peoples attitude. These include -indiscriminate waste disposal, littering, poor hygienic practice and responsible institution arrangements. Do we have responsible institutional arrangement put in place by the government? If they are entrenched, what kind of funding do they get and what is the managerial ability of the people in charge of it? In Nigeria presently, the availability and the capacity of waste managers is lacking.

You can count on your finger tips, how many sanitation engineers we have in this country. Another pertinent problem has to do with equipment.What type of equipment are available to prosecute waste management? What are the present practices of waste management in the country? Finally, Lagos is one of the six mega cities in the world where the population is more than 10 million people. For you to move waste in Lagos from a transfer station to the dump site, you cannot make up to two trips before a the end of the day. In other cities where the population is not dense, you can make 40 trips. Invariably, traffic congestion becomes a problem in waste disposal and management.

Peculiarity of Nigerians is another potent factor. We have just come from a strike. We are now looking at the backlog of wastes for over a week unattended to. A situation -where 0.115kg of waste is generated by an average individual daily, then multiplied by a population of 12-18 million speaks volume of the tonnage of wastes. When you do not clear it in a day, talk less of two, three days, then a week, it means you have to work 24 hours for several days to clear the refuse.

Why is it that these problems have persisted?

In the past, waste management was an appendage under the government setting. The government used to manage waste. Now there is a gradual shift from government funding with management being transferred into private hands.

We are looking at partial commercialization intended to bring the people into focus. What happens when the community is brought in is for them to contribute in one way or the other, Nigerians being used to people not paying their bills, NITEL and NEPA can tell you their experiences.The GSM operators succeeded because they are prepaid. In fact, paying a stipend of N 150 to N200 for refuse to be collected monthly, is an uphill task collecting from house- holds.

Those currently operating private sector operators in waste management are mainly party stalwarts, who knows little or nothing about waste management. Remember these operators came with everything initially borrowed -vehicles, money for fuel, shovels, etc. If you do not pay promptly, the job will collapse, that is what happened to the PSP: Waste management through the PSP in Lagos State collapsed about a year ago. What we have presently is a time bomb waiting to explode.

There area about 35 different kinds of diseases that can be contracted through poor waste management. Currently Lagos, Kaduna and Onitsha, have witnessed an up rise in the number of cholera patients. We have an epidemic at hand. There is waste management crisis in Lagos. From what we see in Lagos if the situation persists in the next one year, do not expect the Lagos you are seeing today to be the same Lagos. It is high time they accessed the ecological fund. It is not that the government has not recognized the problem at first hand, the truth is the problem has outpaced them. It is easy for NITEL to disconnect you, NEPA can equally do so from the pole, but where does the private refuse waste manager disconnect a household?

What are the likely solutions? When we conceptualized the PSP; three sectors were involved. These include, the immediate community, landlord-tenant association, the local government and the third was the private sector participant. The idea was for the community to be part and parcel of the whole idea. The problem arose when the immediate community was sidelined by party-loyalists turned PSP operators. The importance of the community landlords is that they are on ground, they know themselves within a particular neighborhood.These party loyalists came in as government contractors waiting for cheque every month.

The issue of blockage of drainage leading to flooding has become a perennial problem in Lagos. What is being done to ameliorate it?

The major contributing factor is the in- discriminate dumping of wastes into the gutters. These constitute obstacles to the free flow of water, causing the gutters to overflow, and subsequently flooding. Three years back, Clean Up Nigeria, in conjunction with UNESCO, and the Nigerian Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research conducted studies on the causes of flood in Lagos. It was followed by a public enlightenment on how to prevent flooding in Lagos State. This year, the Lagos State Government has also joined these two organizations in a project intended to provide modern clean drainage environment in urban areas, in Lagos. The essence of the project is to involve the community to evolve a wise practice agreement on how they can keep the gutters free of sediments, thereby ensuring free flow of water, hence preventing flooding,

Are there programmes which Clean Up Nigeria is presently embarking?

We are embarking on a massive integrated programme starting with public enlightenment programme in August in Lagos. We have recruited 1000 and trained 70% of these sanitation corps. These corps are Nigerians from all works of life, that will monitor, coordinate and correct the unsanitary habits of the people, They go on the duties as they go along their daily duties.

Source: NIGERIANEWSNOW.COM, 02 August 2003