Stakeholders Brainstorm on Cleaner Lagos Initiative

By Dipo Olowookere

As part of efforts to achieve a clean and healthy environment in Lagos, stakeholders operating within the Lagos Island Central Business District gathered at the Onikan Youth Centre, Onikan, Lagos Island, to brainstorm on the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI) of the state government.

Speaking at the event, the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Central Business Districts, Prince Anofiu Olarenwaju Elegushi, noted that waste management was a collective effort and therefore should not be left in the hands of government alone.

He called for cooperation of traders, residents and business owners within the District to key into the newly introduced Cleaner Lagos Initiative by providing waste bins on their premises and bagging their waste always for proper disposal at designated waste points rather than dumping them on streets and walkways.

“It is now mandatory that all shops and business premises must provide waste bins in your houses, shops and offices as any house or shop without waste bin will be locked up,” Mr Elegushi asserted.

Speaking on efforts at evacuating refuse in the area, the Special Adviser said: “We have hired waste compartments to regularly cart away refuse within the Lagos Island Central Business District daily pending when the Vision Scape operators are able to get a full bearing on waste management within the District”.

Also speaking at the event, the Chairman of Lagos Island East Local Council Development Area, Mr Kamal Bashua, commended the response of the Central Business District Management office in carting away refuse from the Island daily.

He noted that a temporary Transfer Loading Center is required within the District to effectively serve as a collection point for waste generated in the District and decried the present situation where waste trucks have to travel a long distance from the Lagos Island to Epe or Olusosun on the mainland to dispose of refuse collected within the Island.

The Chairman identified Oluwole area as a place that can be used as an emergency waste transfer loading point to temporarily serve as collection point for waste generated within the Lagos Island District.

The stakeholders pledged to support the initiative but called on Vision Scape, the operator of the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, to always consult them before allocating waste bins as most of the waste bins in place were stationed in wrong places.