Lagos residents decry indiscriminate dumping of waste
Some residents of Lagos metropolis on Monday decried the indiscriminate dumping of refuse by the roadside by cart pushers.
In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, the residents also decried the late response of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) Private Sector Participation (PSP) operators in removing the waste so dumped.
The heaps of refuse dumps are common in some areas in Lagos.
Areas such as Ikotun, Okokomaiko, Makoko, Iba road, Alaba International Market, Ajegunle, Mushin, amongst others, have been turned to dumping sites by cart pushers.
These heaps of refuse in most cases are observed to have been left unattended to by the PSP operators for several days.
Mr Babatunde Areola, a resident of Ikotun, a suburb of Lagos, said that the menace had been existing for years and the state government had not been able to totally eradicate the problem.
“Ikotun has many markets which generate a lot of waste.
“I don’t know how they discard their waste but we, the host community, suffer.
“Some even throw their waste into the gutter, which is not supposed to be.
“We see those cart pushers everywhere and the truth is some people just give them a token and they drop the waste wherever they want to,” Areola said.
Another resident, Nkechi Onyebuchi, said residents and motorists sometime dropped refuse on the roads.
“This is not right. We need to know the dangers of throwing waste on the road.
“The PSP operators on their part should also not leave these waste unattended to for several days,” Onyebuchi said.
She pleaded with the relevant authorities to find a lasting solution to the menace.
Also, Mrs Adenike Ibrahim, said that the situation was the same in her Olosha area of Mushin, where refuse littered the roadside.