LAWMA inaugurates third waste transfer loading station
The Lagos State Waste Management Authority has unveiled the third waste transfer loading station in the Agege area of the state.
It is one of the proposed 20 stations required to manage the over 11, 000 metric tonnes of waste generated daily in the state, according to the agency.
The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said solid waste management in the state had gone beyond the norm of collection and transportation, and now occupied a key position, playing a paramount role in urban hygiene, sustainable development and governance.
He said, “These facilities are major landmark in the quest for development in the waste management sector in particular and other public utility services.
“This facility will not only reduce turnaround time, it will reduce cost on overhead such as fuelling and other consumables and enhance the shelf life of equipment with a multiplier effect on general hygiene.”
Fashola also urged residents of the state to ensure sustainability by paying for services rendered while all communities should constitute a watchdog to monitor their environment to prevent indiscriminate dumping of waste.
He also said the state government planned to open a recycling plant in Alimosho.
The Managing Director of LAWMA, Mr. Ola Oresanya, said the increase in waste generation figure put at a growth rate of six to eight per cent, and the lack of space for landfill sites informed the decision to replace the dumpsites in the state with 20 transfer loading stations, designed with the capacity to handle 1, 000 tonnes of waste daily.
He added that the loading station used to be a dumpsite and a haven for hoodlums.
He said, “A total of 165, 000 metric tonnes of waste was evacuated from this place. This facility like the two previous ones is a demonstration of capacity to transform degraded or mismanaged environment to a facility of repute as a social remediation strategy.
“The Simpson TLS was unveiled in 2009 and has processed over 600,000 metric tonnes of waste while the Oshodi TLS inaugurated in 2011 has also processed a total of 324, 651 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste.”
He said that with the established benchmarks for the development and operations of the loading stations, LAWMA was set to allow the private sector to participate in the rapid development of the remaining 17 stations across the state.
“For immediate take-off, four sites are ready for development. The sites are Ogombo, Abule-Egba, Ishasi and Owutu in Ikorodu,” he said.
The new loading station is expected to serve areas such as Ikeja, Agege, Ifako-Ijaiye, Ojokoro, Iju-Ishaga and Orile-Agege.
“In addition, the station will also provide a buyback centre for the community and also serve as a source centre where used clothes, bags and other household items will be collected and handed over to the less privileged under the LAWMA re-use programme,” Oresanya said.
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