Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly will cut short their break and reconvene on Monday to deliberate on the harmonised environmental bill sent by the executive.
The lawmakers were originally supposed to resume from their six-week break on February 28, Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Information, Strategy and Security, Tunde Buraimo, said the lawmakers are cutting short their break because of the urgency of the bill and their commitment to ensuring good governance.
“We are all committed to ensuring good governance and this bill which is aimed at improving lives. Our people deserve our attention hence we have no choice than to cut short our break and do the job,” Buraimo said.
The bill seeks to create a single control body for all environmental agencies in the state for the purpose of resolving areas of conflict and vest in the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment the overall management and supervision of all the agencies as well as encourage synergy and cooperation among the agencies.
Operators of domestic and commercial wastes in Lagos have approached a high court in the state to stop the government from displacing them or replacing them with new operators.
In a suit filed on their behalf by Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, the private sector participants (PSP operators) urged the court to urgently uphold and protect their existing rights and benefits so that the government will not appoint new operators to replace them.
Lagos currently generates 14,000 metric tons (about 490 trailer loads) of wastes daily, according to the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA).
Recently, during a three-day training workshop for LAWMA officials, the government announced it would introduce new reforms to make the agency more efficient.
Part of the reforms include a cancellation of the current 60-40 arrangement between LAWMA and the PSP operators whereby the agency collects waste bills on behalf of the operators and remit 60 per cent to them.
In their 77 paragraph affidavit deposed to by Olabode Coker, the Chairman of the Association of Waste Managers, the operators stated that they had helped Lagos State to rid the state of refuse spanning several years of investments human and material resources, which had also involved professional trainings and education.
The association, comprising over 350 PSP operators, asked the court to restrain any foreign operator, and their local agents, from taking over the collection, disposal and management of domestic solid waste in all areas of Lagos State.
Hitherto, the state has several laws which regularise various aspects of environmental matters and protection in the state.
They are the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) Law, the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Law, the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) Law, the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) Law and the Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency (LSOGA) Law.
