Waste: How Lagos residents can help themselves out – Expert

An environmentalist, Lawal Rasheed says Lagos residents need to take responsibility for effective waste management in their communities, ahead of the rainy season to avert an epidemic.

Rasheed, a climate change advocate and co-chairperson of the Advocate for Clean Climate and Environment, said the residents of the state must also rise to the challenge of desilting their drains, to forestall flooding and calamitous consequences as the rains come.

“The immediate effect of poor waste management takes its toll on residents in the communities and not the government.

“Hence, efficient waste management is hinged on the shoulders of residents. Drains that are clogged should be cleared and evacuated. Trash removed from such drains should not be left on the side-walks as they are usually washed back by the rains,” he said.

Rasheed called for the support of the Community Development Associations (CDA), to encourage residents to evolve new procedures to improve upon the failed sanitation process in the state.

“These exercises should be encouraged by the CDAs of different communities as the sanitation process has been cancelled in Lagos State. There is also the need for the residents to desist from dumping refuse into the drains.

“The menace of flooding, stench from indiscriminate waste disposal and possible epidemics will not affect the government but rather residents in the communities. So I maintain that the CDAs should be responsible for the clearing of such drainages,” he said.

Rasheed reiterated the dangers of indiscriminate dumping of refuse as he called for the services of the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) personnel, to monitor indiscriminate waste disposals.

“The implication of indiscriminate dumping of waste includes the rise in epidemic diseases, and degradation of the environment.

“Flooding also results in blocked drainages, traffic gridlock due to sections of the road blocked by refuse and the evolution of slums and shanties in the middle of the city. Communities should engage the activities of the LNSC to monitor indiscriminate waste disposal in their neighbourhoods,” he said.

He advised VisionScape, the municipal waste manager engaged by the state government to collect domestic wastes, to ensure that their waste bins are situated away from residences.

According to Rasheed, the bins should be at a distance where any indiscriminate use can be effectively monitored.

“Communities with such resources could also provide extra waste bins to accommodate more waste per time. The contact details of the waste managers should be pasted on the walls close to the bins or directly on the bins.

“That way, anyone can notify the waste managers that the bins are full and ready to be evacuated,” Rasheed said.