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Visionscape, the metropolitan waste manager Lagos State signed a deal with to collect and manage wastes, is opening the space for Private Sector Participants (PSPs) as contractors to jointly tackle the challenge of wastes in the state.
Lagos, a city with an estimated population of 21 million people, is said to be generating about 13,000 metric tons of waste daily. But the ineffective manner this huge waste is being managed has continued to pose a challenge to the government and residents, as it constitutes health hazards to millions of residents.
In a bid to address this challenge, the government last year finalised a deal with Visionscape Sanitation Solutions to collect and manage domestic wastes to the exclusion of PSP operators who, before the advent of Visionscape, collaborated with Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) to collect and dispose of wastes in the state.
The exclusion drew flaks from the operators who went to court to challenge the action of the government. The court subsequently gave the parties the option of out of court settlement.
Findings by BusinessDay reveal that although over 200 trucks and machinery had been brought in since Visionscape sealed the deal, the company has yet to fully develop capacity in terms of manpower and equipment to collect waste from residences. Checks show that many areas of the state are still replete with refuse spilling over waste bins placed in street corners and junctions.
Kehinde Bamigbetan, commissioner for information and strategy, confirmed to journalists, on Monday, an arrangement whereby the PSPs were joining Visionscape in the implementation of the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI) of government.
“With this, the state is getting cleaner,” Bamigbetan said, while responding to question bordering on the waste situation.
Also affirming this, John Irvine, managing director/CEO of Visionscape, said existing PSPs willing to work with his company were being engaged as Waste Collection Operators (WCOs).
According to Irvine, the WCOs will be working directly for Visionscape as contractors; they will be monitored and paid by Visionscape.
Irvine said Visionscape would also be willing to financially assist the WCOs to acquire modern waste management equipment, adding that “we can’t deliver a 21st Century service with 20th Century equipment.”
