By MERCY OMOIKE

The Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has disclosed plans to shutdown Olusosun and Solous dumpsites permanently and a clampdown on non-performing Private Sector Partnership (PSP) operators in the state.

The LAWMA Managing Director, Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin, disclosed this during a visit to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Lagos office.

Gbadegesin said the state government had approved the building of transfer loading stations and recovery materials facilities to be launched in 18 months.

This, he said, was part of efforts to boost waste infrastructure in the state.

“In the area of infrastructure which is the hardware, the Lagos State House of Assembly has ratified to build two transfer loading stations and material recovery facilities which will enable us to close the Olusosun and the Soluos Landfills in Lagos.

“We are very excited about this development, once they break the ground in the next few days, the work is expected to be completed in the next 18 months.

“The facility will give us the capacity to treat and dispose of 4,000 tonnes of waste daily in Lagos state,” he said.

He also said the agency would liaise with the House of Assembly for the review of the Environmental Management and Protection Laws of 2017.

“In the area of the operating system, we want to liaise with the House of Assembly for the review of the Environmental Management and Protection Laws of 2017, which is a long required amendment.

“The amendment is going to take about six months.

“Following that, we are going to do a reform of the PSP system. It is going to be a positive reform.

“This is because we are going to ensure that the PSP operators who are working and are high performers according to the record are given the necessary support to upgrade their fleet.

“This upgrade will enable the serious PSP operators to enhance their services. The unserious PSP operators who are not working and are giving us issues will be removed from the system,” Gbadegesin said.

He said a total of 27 unserious PSP operators were removed from its system in 2025 for underperformance.

“Last year, we removed 27 unserious PSP operators from our system and this year, we already have 22 PSP operators who are on their last warning.

“We stress here that we will not protect any PSP operator that is not doing what they should be doing.

“We are sounding a note of warning to them that enough is enough. Dumpsites are good and they are accessible, so there is no more excuse.

“We have some PSP operators that are doing up to 50 trips a day, carrying waste from across Lagos to different dumpsites, while we have some that do only four or five trips a day.

“How do we then we reconcile that? If there’s a PSP operator conforming so well and the others are not conforming well that means there’s an issue they should come to us as LAWMA and resolve,” he said.

The LAWMA boss also disclosed the improvement and expansion of its customer service to resolve the complaints of Lagos residents as regards waste management.

“We have also expanded and improved our customer service so that if there are complaints from residents, they can easily reach us on our toll free numbers, by email and even via our social media handles.

“If you make your complaint on social media we are not ashamed to respond to you and resolve the issue on social media,” he said. (NAN)