Lagos State House of Assembly urges PSP operators to take over waste collection

Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly are urging PSP operators to fully take charge of waste management in the state.

Governor Ambode had brought in Visionscape Sanitation Solutions Ltd to replace the operators in collecting refuse, but the company failed woefully.

The lawmakers, led by Gbolahan Yishawu, the Chairman, House Committee on Budget and Economic Planning, lamented that heaps of refuse were scattered all over the state due to poor management.

“Some refuse are being taken to Epe and Ikorodu but these places are a bit far now,” Yishawu said.

“We used to dump the refuse in Olusosun, but the place was gutted by fire. We can give the place to private companies.

“The sanitary landfill in Epe is not being utilised and the transfer loading stations too are not working effectively.

“It is not all the PSP operators that are working. Maybe, we can recall the PSP Operators and reopen Olusosun and the landfill sites should be operated properly,” he added.

The Majority Leader of the House, Mr Sanai Agunbiade, said that heaps of refuse on the roads and on the streets “are hazardous to the people”.

“Flies from the refuse perch on the food people are eating, thus exposing them to health hazards,”he said.

“One day, Olusosun will not be able to accommodate refuse any longer. It will be better if we can change our policy on refuse disposal.

“I will suggest that we should invite the people in the Ministry of Health and those in the Ministry of the Environment to know their challenges.

“The refuse situation has become an eyesore in Lagos State. We should invite the people in charge.”

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Speaker of the House, Mr Mudashiru Obasa, directed the Chairmen of the 20 local governments and 36 Local Council Development Areas to engage PSP operators to resume full operations.

Obasa also said the executive arm was not consulted before Visionscape began operation.

“We insist that we don’t know anything about Visionscape because we were not consulted before they started work,” he said.

“We once wrote the Commissioner for Finance, Mr Akinyemi Ashade not to pay Visionscape again and that he would return any money he paid to them after our instruction to the coffers of the government.

“We will go to that when the time comes but we have to do the needful now.

“We call on the 20 local governments and 37 LCDAs to have meetings with the PSP operators to go back to work and they should start paying them and make the residents to start paying the operators. We have to avoid epidemics and be proactive,” Obasa said.