…to inject 160 New Compactors
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has declared what he described as a “small state of emergency” on waste management, citing mounting pressure on waste collection and indiscriminate dumping across the metropolis.
Sanwo-Olu also unveiled short-, medium- and long-term measures to clear the current backlog of waste across the state, including plans to deploy 160 new compactor trucks and increase the number of active waste disposal sites.
The governor, accompanied by his deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat; Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab; and other senior government officials, made the remarks on Wednesday during an inspection tour of the Olusosun landfill in Ojota.
He said the intervention had become necessary following weeks of slow waste evacuation and uncoordinated advocacy.
According to him, “What we are seeing at Olusosun is a typical sight of the challenge. We are here to see what the problem is and to clearly declare a small state of emergency so that we can get out of this very unpleasant situation.”
The governor said the state government, in partnership with development partner Zoomlion, was constructing two new 2,400-metric-tonne Transfer Loading Stations at Olusosun and Solu 3 in Alimosho Local Government Area.
Sanwo-Olu said the facilities, when completed, would receive compacted waste and transfer it to two Material Recovery Sites being built at Oke Osho in Epe and Erikitte in Badagry.
“Each transfer station is designed to handle about 500 trucks per day. With the transfer loading stations, waste will be compacted and eventually taken to a material recovery site where it will be further sorted and broken into other uses,” he explained.
Sanwo-Olu projected that physical development at the facilities would be visible by the end of the year, with full operations expected between the first and second quarters of 2026.
For immediate relief, he said the state planned to increase the waste-handling capacity of Olusosun from the current 250–350 trucks daily to between 350 and 450 trucks by increasing the number of tipping points from two or three to four or five.
He said road stabilisation work was also underway at Solu 3, with grading expected to be completed within two to three weeks to allow continued waste reception.
Similar stabilisation work, he added, was planned for Iwulepe in Ikorodu and Oke Osho in Epe.
“We are hoping that before the end of next month, or in another six weeks, we will have four active dump sites: Olusosun, Solu 3, Iwulepe, and Oke Osho in Epe. And also a fifth one in Badagry, Erikitte,” he said.
The governor said the goal was to reduce truck turnaround time from as long as 12 hours to a few hours by providing trucks with disposal options closer to their collection areas.
On the planned acquisition of 160 compactor trucks, Sanwo-Olu said the measure was aimed at addressing gaps in waste collection across the state.
“To address collection gaps, the state government has ordered 160 new compactor trucks, with shipment expected to begin soon. Landfill compactors for on-site compaction are also being procured,” he said.
He added that Zoomlion and the Private Sector Participants (PSPs) were also expected to procure additional trucks, while the government would work with the PSPs to de-risk financing models and enable them to expand their operations without going bankrupt.
Sanwo-Olu said the Chairman of the PSP Association, who joined the inspection tour, had agreed to a membership audit to “purge” inactive operators.
He said while about 800 PSPs were registered, only an estimated 400 were effective.
“We don’t want to have 800 PSPs when it is actually only 400 that are effective,” the official said, adding that the clean-up would create room for new investors.
The governor also appealed to residents and tenement occupiers to pay for waste management services.
“Lagosians in particular, we just want service. We don’t want to pay for this service. I think this era has to stop. It’s so unfair to see people rendering service and people are not paying them,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu said the monthly sanitation exercise, launched four months ago, as well as ongoing advocacy, would be better coordinated going forward.
He said the combination of new equipment, additional disposal sites, transfer stations and reforms in the PSP system was aimed at addressing Lagos’ waste generation, disposal and conversion challenges in the long term.
