Deborah Akinyosoye
The Ogun State Government has mandated all residential houses in the state to henceforth containerise their wastes by providing covered waste containers in front of their premises for effective waste management.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Environment and Managing Director of Ogun State Waste Management Authority (OGWAMA), Abayomi Hunye, made this known in a statement in Abeokuta on Sunday.
He said the order became necessary to make waste collection at the domestic level better organised through containerisation and to bring more residential premises into the waste management system that had previously dumped or burned their waste in unauthorised
places, which has negative effects on the environment.
Hunye said the residents of those premises concerned are free to purchase their containers from open markets or make special arrangements with the Waste Private Sector Participants assigned to their communities.
“This new order will not only bring more premises into the system but will discourage waste being dropped into uncovered plastics, nylons, cans, and sacks, which will fly about at the slightest opportunity, making the environment untidy, unsafe, and unhealthy for human habitation,” he said.
To sustain the new order, since the collectors are Private Sector Participants assigned to different communities, Hunye said each residential premise is to pay a token to the PSP that services them in the form of a waste bill, while the state government will augment the payment.
“The subsidised residential waste bill is proof that residents in a particular premise have subscribed to the waste service and not the real cost of waste collection from their premises, which is much higher. The subscribed waste bill also gives residents the opportunity to have this important document, which is now used for documentation in local, national, international, and financial documentation and transactions.”
For those premises that are not accessible by waste trucks and fear not being serviced after complying with the new order, Hunye assured them of adequate services, as waste tricycles will be deployed to service them.
He called for the cooperation of all residents and Community Development Associations to make the new order a huge success for the overall interest and well-being of all.