WASTE DISPOSAL DISPUTE: PSP operators kick-against govt’s plan to engage foreign firm
*Complain of awful dump sites, bad roads
*Call Gov Ambode to repair TLS, construct Concrete landfill sites
By Idowu Ajigboteso
THE Private Sector Participation (PSP), operators in Lagos State have cried out over the plan of the state government to bring in a foreign firm to take over waste disposal management in the state. The operators have complained about awful conditions at dumpsites, bad roads, lack of access to some streets and failure of LAWMA to pay them promptly for their services.
They have appealed to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to retain their services, construct concrete landfill sites with power supply and repair the Transfer Loading Stations to make their services more effective.
They said that if the landfill sites are illuminated, their vehicles could dispose wastes at night, rather than only in the afternoon, where all the 350 trucks will line up to dispose wastes at a time, which is delaying their services. Many times their truck drivers sleep at dumpsites for three days before being able to dispose wastes.
The executive members of the body representing PSP operators, declared this recently, in an interview with pressmen at their head office in Mushin. They said that since the Lagos State government had engaged them, through LAWMA, the state had been adjudged the cleanest city in Africa and received awards in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. Excerpts:
Our story by PSP operators
According to the operators who spoke through their consultant, Mr. Lekan Owojori, “if we have been performing well and winning awards and the state was adjudged the cleanest city in Africa, why are they saying that PSP operators are not performing? PSP operation is a tripartite arrangement, where the PSP operators, Lagosians and the state government through (LAWMA) have to perform their duties effectively. If any part fails, it will affect the activities of the others.
“When we got information that the Ministry of Environment was planning to bring in a foreign company to take over our job; we met the Honourable Commissioner for Environment on the issue, and he told us that we the current 350 PSP operators will handle commercial aspect of the waste project which is just 20% of it. It consists hotels, churches, mosques, schools and markets; while the foreign company will handle the domestic aspect, which is 80% of the project. It covers all the residential houses in Lagos State.
“Our worry is, how would money from commercial part of the project which is just 20% of the project. And our share from the commercial money has been reduced from 60% to 33%. Then, how would this little share be enough for all 350 operators to manage the project, offset the bank loan, execute the project successfully and meet our financial obligations? Some of the vehicles we are using are too expensive to purchase and manage. It costs between N8 million and N40 million per truck. We have changed our trucks three times to meet up with the requirement of the government for effective delivery, and those trucks were purchased on placement of order to the manufacturing company”.
On accusation that some of them were not effective, the PSP executives explained that government, being the regulator of the project, has the right to sanction any erring operator. “lf we are not effective, would Lagos State win an award as the cleanest city in Africa in 2011 by Bill Clinton Foundation? Would the operators too have won different awards for effective service delivery?”
Our Challenges
Awful dumpsites: The operators complained that the bad condition of the landfills which are under the management of LAWMA lack basic necessities; such as the required number of caterpillars to push back the refuse at the sites for other refuse to be dumped by the truck drivers are seriously affecting their service. This, therefore, has become a major hindrance and has been responsible for the delay in the punctual evacuation of refuse around the state.
They also complained that most of the caterpillars had broken down, and government has failed to replace them. They added that the shortage of serviceable caterpillars to ease congestion and the amount of time spent by truck drivers on queues at the dump sites to dispose refuse is affecting their services and has led to loss of workers due to the inability to pay them wages regularly.
“As a result of this problem, the dumpsites at Igando and Ojota have become an eyesore. Imagine if an operator has two trucks, and the trucks were trapped at the dumpsite; how will the operator remove waste from the public on time? The general public may be blaming the PSP operators for delaying the evacuation of the refuse without knowing that the dumpsites are delaying us because of their bad condition and the bad roads which damage our trucks within a short time of operation. We have only two dumpsites in the whole Lagos State where all the 350 PSP operators offload their wastes. This makes queues at those dumpsites delay our trucks. Also, during the rainy season, some of our trucks get stuck, and before we can remove them, our services are delayed. In the process of towing them out of the dumpsites, the trucks’ tyres, windscreen and other parts of the vehicle get damaged.
“It costs the owners, huge sums of money to repair such trucks. That is why a new truck turns rickety within six months of operation. Sometimes at dumpsites, trucks catch fire because of the chemical reactions from the waste, especially, in the afternoons when the trucks are off-loading; and this becomes a liability to the operators.”
Bad roads:
“This is another challenge affecting the operators’ service. For instance, roads to the dumpsites are terribly bad. Trucks always get stuck inside the bad roads during rainy season. It takes days to pull such trucks out. Also, most of the roads in the streets are really bad and narrow. Some of them are not motorable which makes it really impossible for us to reach every nook and cranny of the communities. Yet, we make sure we deliver our service. What we do whenever we are around to pick their wastes is to ring bells that our trucks are around so that people can bring their wastes out to the point where our trucks are parked. Yet, some clients will not comply, at the end of the day, they will dump their wastes on roads and put the blames on the PSP operators”, said Owojori.
Defaulters:
“Another challenge facing us are some clients, who do not pay their waste bills, making it difficult for us to meet our financial obligations. When most operators do not get paid, how would they manage their workforce and maintain their fleets of vehicles?” Owojori queried.
Solution:
“Government should allow us to continue handling domestic waste for effectiveness. This is because we know the nooks and crannies of Lagos State, while the foreign company may not know. Government should construct Scientific Concrete Landfills, to prevent poisonous substances from the waste from penetrating into the ground to contaminate the water around.
“Such landfills should be easily accessible to discharge waste in time to make our services faster than before.
“There should be electricity in the landfills, to make waste disposal easy in the night. If there is light at the dumpsites, it will be easier for our trucks to dump their waste at night, rather than sleeping in dumpsites for days before offloading. Also, it will be easier to evacuate waste from the market places and dispose it at night to avoid disturbing business transactions during the day. There should be regular payment to all operators by LAWMA. As at today, they still owe us some months. All these are affecting our services. Government should enforce discipline on defaulting house owners, so that they will not influence others that are paying their bill regularly.
“Government should make it compulsory for house owners to have covered waste bins and portable black nylon bags for keeping their refuse, for easy disposal and to prevent the waste from stench and flies before evacuation. “There should be strict penalty for people dumping refuse at main roads or public places, to serve as deterrent to others that are doing that to deface the beauty of the city. Government should make Transfer Loading Stations (TLS), at Oshodi, Agege and Lagos Island functioning. If the TLSs are working, it would not be necessary for all the PSP operators to take their waste to dumpsite at the same time causing log-jam and delay at the site. The TLS would put the waste in a big truck to dumpsite at midnight. This will make the operators service effective and faster.
“Government should have a sorting place to sort out wastes before final disposal. Where glass, plastic and food waste could be separated. While the food waste will go to the landfill, the plastic wastes could be sold to another company for production.
“Government should return to status-quo of 60% payment to PSP operators in commercial aspect of the project, rather than 33% they are giving us now.”
Appeal:
The PSP operators appealed to the Lagos State government to rescind his decision to hire foreign PSP firms to handle domestic part of the waste management, as they promised to double their efforts in making Lagos State clean. They said that the only way for them to recover money invested on the waste project, is when they continue handling the domestic part of the project.
“We bought modern trucks, through loans from banks with huge interest rates, with hope to be using the money realised from the waste operations to service the loans. We also built offices in all the local governments of the state for smooth operations. If government stops our domestic operation, it will affect us and could cause further sudden death of some operators when they are unable to pay the loan, and their property is seized by banks. Two of our colleague operators had already died of heart attack since this issue started last year. They were thinking how to repay the loan they got from bank, if they were removed from domestic aspect of the project. Being that we have been operating at a loss because of the refusal of some clients to pay their waste bill. We want the state government to enact a law that will force clients to pay their waste bill in time”, said Owojori.
LASG’s reactions:
The Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Samuel Adejare, maintained that the state government will not face-out the PSP operators, but government would only restrict their service to commercial customers and businesses, while the foreign investor will handle residential areas. He urged Lagosians to properly bag their waste and disposed it through authorized PSP operators.
The commissioner stated that the new approach, Cleaner Lagos Initiative, would review the activities of LAWMA, PSP, dumpsites and other aspects of waste disposal and collections. “The changes would include transformation of Transfer Load Stations (TLS), to Material Recovery Facility (MRF), elimination of dumpsites at Olusosun and Soulus; and replace them with Scientific Concrete Landfills, which would generate power. Government would purchase more new compactors to complement the existing ones that are still functioning and recertification of new private operators. The funds allegedly being owed would be addressed through a recertification and revalidation process”, he said.
*Call Gov Ambode to repair TLS, construct Concrete landfill sites
By Idowu Ajigboteso
THE Private Sector Participation (PSP), operators in Lagos State have cried out over the plan of the state government to bring in a foreign firm to take over waste disposal management in the state. The operators have complained about awful conditions at dumpsites, bad roads, lack of access to some streets and failure of LAWMA to pay them promptly for their services.
They have appealed to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to retain their services, construct concrete landfill sites with power supply and repair the Transfer Loading Stations to make their services more effective.
They said that if the landfill sites are illuminated, their vehicles could dispose wastes at night, rather than only in the afternoon, where all the 350 trucks will line up to dispose wastes at a time, which is delaying their services. Many times their truck drivers sleep at dumpsites for three days before being able to dispose wastes.
The executive members of the body representing PSP operators, declared this recently, in an interview with pressmen at their head office in Mushin. They said that since the Lagos State government had engaged them, through LAWMA, the state had been adjudged the cleanest city in Africa and received awards in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively. Excerpts:
Our story by PSP operators
According to the operators who spoke through their consultant, Mr. Lekan Owojori, “if we have been performing well and winning awards and the state was adjudged the cleanest city in Africa, why are they saying that PSP operators are not performing? PSP operation is a tripartite arrangement, where the PSP operators, Lagosians and the state government through (LAWMA) have to perform their duties effectively. If any part fails, it will affect the activities of the others.
“When we got information that the Ministry of Environment was planning to bring in a foreign company to take over our job; we met the Honourable Commissioner for Environment on the issue, and he told us that we the current 350 PSP operators will handle commercial aspect of the waste project which is just 20% of it. It consists hotels, churches, mosques, schools and markets; while the foreign company will handle the domestic aspect, which is 80% of the project. It covers all the residential houses in Lagos State.
“Our worry is, how would money from commercial part of the project which is just 20% of the project. And our share from the commercial money has been reduced from 60% to 33%. Then, how would this little share be enough for all 350 operators to manage the project, offset the bank loan, execute the project successfully and meet our financial obligations? Some of the vehicles we are using are too expensive to purchase and manage. It costs between N8 million and N40 million per truck. We have changed our trucks three times to meet up with the requirement of the government for effective delivery, and those trucks were purchased on placement of order to the manufacturing company”.
On accusation that some of them were not effective, the PSP executives explained that government, being the regulator of the project, has the right to sanction any erring operator. “lf we are not effective, would Lagos State win an award as the cleanest city in Africa in 2011 by Bill Clinton Foundation? Would the operators too have won different awards for effective service delivery?”
Our Challenges
Awful dumpsites: The operators complained that the bad condition of the landfills which are under the management of LAWMA lack basic necessities; such as the required number of caterpillars to push back the refuse at the sites for other refuse to be dumped by the truck drivers are seriously affecting their service. This, therefore, has become a major hindrance and has been responsible for the delay in the punctual evacuation of refuse around the state.
They also complained that most of the caterpillars had broken down, and government has failed to replace them. They added that the shortage of serviceable caterpillars to ease congestion and the amount of time spent by truck drivers on queues at the dump sites to dispose refuse is affecting their services and has led to loss of workers due to the inability to pay them wages regularly.
“As a result of this problem, the dumpsites at Igando and Ojota have become an eyesore. Imagine if an operator has two trucks, and the trucks were trapped at the dumpsite; how will the operator remove waste from the public on time? The general public may be blaming the PSP operators for delaying the evacuation of the refuse without knowing that the dumpsites are delaying us because of their bad condition and the bad roads which damage our trucks within a short time of operation. We have only two dumpsites in the whole Lagos State where all the 350 PSP operators offload their wastes. This makes queues at those dumpsites delay our trucks. Also, during the rainy season, some of our trucks get stuck, and before we can remove them, our services are delayed. In the process of towing them out of the dumpsites, the trucks’ tyres, windscreen and other parts of the vehicle get damaged.
“It costs the owners, huge sums of money to repair such trucks. That is why a new truck turns rickety within six months of operation. Sometimes at dumpsites, trucks catch fire because of the chemical reactions from the waste, especially, in the afternoons when the trucks are off-loading; and this becomes a liability to the operators.”
Bad roads:
“This is another challenge affecting the operators’ service. For instance, roads to the dumpsites are terribly bad. Trucks always get stuck inside the bad roads during rainy season. It takes days to pull such trucks out. Also, most of the roads in the streets are really bad and narrow. Some of them are not motorable which makes it really impossible for us to reach every nook and cranny of the communities. Yet, we make sure we deliver our service. What we do whenever we are around to pick their wastes is to ring bells that our trucks are around so that people can bring their wastes out to the point where our trucks are parked. Yet, some clients will not comply, at the end of the day, they will dump their wastes on roads and put the blames on the PSP operators”, said Owojori.
Defaulters:
“Another challenge facing us are some clients, who do not pay their waste bills, making it difficult for us to meet our financial obligations. When most operators do not get paid, how would they manage their workforce and maintain their fleets of vehicles?” Owojori queried.
Solution:
“Government should allow us to continue handling domestic waste for effectiveness. This is because we know the nooks and crannies of Lagos State, while the foreign company may not know. Government should construct Scientific Concrete Landfills, to prevent poisonous substances from the waste from penetrating into the ground to contaminate the water around.
“Such landfills should be easily accessible to discharge waste in time to make our services faster than before.
“There should be electricity in the landfills, to make waste disposal easy in the night. If there is light at the dumpsites, it will be easier for our trucks to dump their waste at night, rather than sleeping in dumpsites for days before offloading. Also, it will be easier to evacuate waste from the market places and dispose it at night to avoid disturbing business transactions during the day. There should be regular payment to all operators by LAWMA. As at today, they still owe us some months. All these are affecting our services. Government should enforce discipline on defaulting house owners, so that they will not influence others that are paying their bill regularly.
“Government should make it compulsory for house owners to have covered waste bins and portable black nylon bags for keeping their refuse, for easy disposal and to prevent the waste from stench and flies before evacuation. “There should be strict penalty for people dumping refuse at main roads or public places, to serve as deterrent to others that are doing that to deface the beauty of the city. Government should make Transfer Loading Stations (TLS), at Oshodi, Agege and Lagos Island functioning. If the TLSs are working, it would not be necessary for all the PSP operators to take their waste to dumpsite at the same time causing log-jam and delay at the site. The TLS would put the waste in a big truck to dumpsite at midnight. This will make the operators service effective and faster.
“Government should have a sorting place to sort out wastes before final disposal. Where glass, plastic and food waste could be separated. While the food waste will go to the landfill, the plastic wastes could be sold to another company for production.
“Government should return to status-quo of 60% payment to PSP operators in commercial aspect of the project, rather than 33% they are giving us now.”
Appeal:
The PSP operators appealed to the Lagos State government to rescind his decision to hire foreign PSP firms to handle domestic part of the waste management, as they promised to double their efforts in making Lagos State clean. They said that the only way for them to recover money invested on the waste project, is when they continue handling the domestic part of the project.
“We bought modern trucks, through loans from banks with huge interest rates, with hope to be using the money realised from the waste operations to service the loans. We also built offices in all the local governments of the state for smooth operations. If government stops our domestic operation, it will affect us and could cause further sudden death of some operators when they are unable to pay the loan, and their property is seized by banks. Two of our colleague operators had already died of heart attack since this issue started last year. They were thinking how to repay the loan they got from bank, if they were removed from domestic aspect of the project. Being that we have been operating at a loss because of the refusal of some clients to pay their waste bill. We want the state government to enact a law that will force clients to pay their waste bill in time”, said Owojori.
LASG’s reactions:
The Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Samuel Adejare, maintained that the state government will not face-out the PSP operators, but government would only restrict their service to commercial customers and businesses, while the foreign investor will handle residential areas. He urged Lagosians to properly bag their waste and disposed it through authorized PSP operators.
The commissioner stated that the new approach, Cleaner Lagos Initiative, would review the activities of LAWMA, PSP, dumpsites and other aspects of waste disposal and collections. “The changes would include transformation of Transfer Load Stations (TLS), to Material Recovery Facility (MRF), elimination of dumpsites at Olusosun and Soulus; and replace them with Scientific Concrete Landfills, which would generate power. Government would purchase more new compactors to complement the existing ones that are still functioning and recertification of new private operators. The funds allegedly being owed would be addressed through a recertification and revalidation process”, he said.
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