Why Lagos’ Waste Crisis Has Gotten Worse – Deputy Gov

The Lagos State Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, has attributed the worsening waste management crisis in the state to a sharp increase in the volume of refuse generated daily, coupled with a shortage of functional waste collection trucks.

Hamzat said the state government had initially estimated that Lagos generated about 13,000 tonnes of waste daily but later discovered that the actual figure was closer to 17,000 tonnes.

The deputy governor disclosed this on Tuesday while speaking on Nigeria Info FM, Lagos, where he explained some of the challenges confronting the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and the state’s waste collection system.

Hamzat said it would be unfair to blame LAWMA alone for the growing refuse situation, noting that the agency had been tasked with managing a volume of waste that was significantly higher than previously projected.

“It’s easy for me to just throw the agency under the bus, but I won’t do that. That’s the agency that’s responsible, that we all know. The agency in charge of waste management in Lagos State is the Lagos Waste Management Authority,” he said.

According to him, the scale of waste generation in Lagos had become “unprecedented in this part of the world.”

“So we thought that we are generating 13,000 tons on a daily basis. It turns out we are generating about 17,000,” Hamzat said.

He explained that accurate data was crucial to effective waste management planning, arguing that authorities could not adequately plan for a problem they could not accurately measure.

Hamzat said the situation was further complicated by the informal and unplanned nature of some activities in the state, including people living and working on the streets and generating waste that was difficult to account for in existing projections.

“As a people, the first thing we need to do is we need to organise ourselves. So how do you plan for something you can’t measure?” he asked.

The deputy governor also identified the declining number of functional waste collection trucks operated by private sector participants as another major factor behind the crisis.

He said Lagos has about 420 Private Sector Participation (PSP) operators involved in waste collection, with each operator initially expected to have at least two trucks under the agreement with the state.

“That means we are expected to have over 800 trucks. The reality is that a lot of them don’t have two anymore,” he said.

Hamzat attributed the reduction partly to rising operating costs, particularly the increase in the price of diesel, which he said had forced some operators to shut down or seek higher tariffs.

According to him, some PSP operators approached the state government seeking an increase in the fees they charge for waste collection due to rising operational costs.

He said the government, rather than approving the full tariff increase demanded by the operators, negotiated a lower adjustment while agreeing to provide financial support to cushion the impact.

“They wanted to go by X, we said no. X minus Y. Y is a positive integer. To say, instead of 10 Naira, let it be, you know, 4, 5, and then we pay it to them,” Hamzat explained.

He identified the deteriorating condition of waste collection trucks as another major challenge, saying a significant number of vehicles in the system were no longer functional.

The state government, he said, had therefore taken steps to procure additional trucks to strengthen waste collection across the state.

Hamzat said the state had ordered two trucks for each of its 57 local government and local council development areas, amounting to 114 trucks, while the state government separately purchased another 100 trucks.

However, he said the delivery of the vehicles, initially expected in July, had been delayed until September.

“We were supposed to get delivery in July. Unfortunately, they now said it’s going to be September,” he said.

The deputy governor said the delay had compounded the pressure on the state’s waste management system, while acknowledging that the government also had to accept responsibility for the situation.

“When I said I will not throw LAWMA under the bus, it’s because of something like that. It’s not technically their fault. Maybe we should have ordered earlier,” Hamzat said.

“Maybe. I mean, we must take responsibility,” he added.