It’s too early ‘to condemn Cleaner Lagos Initiative’

Greater Lagos Youths (GLY), a civil society group, says it is too early to call for the termination of the contract between the Lagos state government and Visionscape Sanitation Solutions, company in charge of Cleaner Lagos Initiative.

In a statement released on Tuesday, GLY, which is an amalgamation of over 60 youth groups drawn from across the 57 local government and local council development areas of Lagos, said calls for terminating the contract is hasty and irresponsible.

A group, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), had asked the state government to terminate the contract with Visionscape, alleging unsatisfactory handling of waste.

Kayode Gbadamosi, national president of GLY, condemned the position of the group, stating that it was pretending to serve the interest of the larger society.

The group said the CLI was introduced to address the challenges in the environmental sector with the focus of aligning the state with top cities in the world having effective and efficient waste management system.

“It is a known fact that the former waste management system in Lagos was fraught with a lot of drawbacks that is not in sync with the status of the state as a mega city by the deployment of outdated and faulty compactors which were always breaking down; the short supply of personnel, etc. All these hindered efficient waste management system and constituted environmental hazards across the state,” he said.

“However, with the coming on board of Visionscape Sanitation Solutions, we are beginning to witness a breath of fresh air in the waste management system through the transformation of waste transfer loading stations across the state, beginning with the Tapa Transfer Loading Station while the one in Oshodi is nearing completion.

“The Ogudu Waste Depot has been completed and the company is currently working on the Epe Landfill, which will be the first Engineered Sanitary Landfill in West Africa, among others.

“Therefore, it is hasty, mischievous and irresponsible for any group to call for the cancellation of Visionscape Sanitation Solutions interventions in waste management system when it’s a fact that the challenges of the waste system on ground is not unusual in a transition period of change as promoters and beneficiaries of the old order will be resistant to change and will employ any means necessary to maintain the status quo.”