September 28, 2014 – The Lagos State government has commenced generation of electricity from wastes. General Manager, Lagos State Waste Management Authority, (LAWMA), Dr. Ola Oresanya made the revelation while speaking at the monthly environmental sanitation in Lagos.
He said the plant which is currently in operation at Ikosi Market is one of the three wastes to electricity plants which the Lagos State Government is working on and that the plants are established based on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
“On the waste to electricity, we have that in three stages. The first stage is in small scale, we have done the pilot scheme. It is sited at the Ikosi market. It is completed and has started generating electricity. The other is the waste to electricity at the Olusosun dumpsite. It is the medium stage. We have drilled our pipes there and very soon we will complete the project.
“The third stage is the thermal conversion at the transfer loading stations and all these are planed with the private investors. These are things that cannot be picked on the shelves. They needed to be done thoroughly”, he said.
Speaking after monitoring the exercise at Echebiri in oto-Awori Local Council Development Area, Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello explained that one of the canals in the area is blocked adding however that it is impossible to clean up all the canals in the area.
We cannot clean and expand the entire canals within one month. The area is not densely populated. So size of the canal is still okay for the community. And some of the issues there are local issues and we have advised the council chairman to take charge of the matter”, he said.
He explained that the most challenging issue in the council is lack of planning. “The residents built haphazardly. Residents build on the road setbacks and on drainages. So there is no space for the government to construct walkways and drainages”, he said.
He said it is alarming for the council to be that dirty even when it is densely populated.
“ We have asked the council chairman to initiate strategies that would help to reduce illegal dumping of waste”, he said.
