Cleaner Lagos: Lagos Still Far From Clean City

Residents of Iju Station area of Lagos have called on the Lagos State government to ensure the agency responsible for emptying the waste containers tagged ‘Cleaner Lagos,’ is up and doing.

A member of the community who talked with National Wire on the condition of anonymity noted that the refuse dump at the front of the group of schools located at the Station bus stop is endangering the school children.

“If at all a refuse dump is to be stationed near the school where little children are learning, then it must be emptied regularly,” she said.

“I am a mother and I know how dangerous refuse can be to children. God forbid if an epidemic breaks, children would be the greatest causality.

“The waste bins by design are to be covered at all times but hardly would you find anyone that can be properly covered because of the volume of refuse. At some places, there are more wastes outside the containers than inside just because the people responsible won’t do their work on time,” she complained.

As the Lagos State government struggles to rid the metropolis of refuse, it seems the state is still very far from achieving its Cleaner Lagos aim.

Cleanliness is next to godliness is an English adage and if this is true, then the city of Lagos, the nation’s commercial nerve centre is still very far from God.

Recently the state government procured and distributed its waste disposal containers tagged ‘Cleaner Lagos Initiative,’ but the containers in some neighbourhoods are daily overwhelmed by the volume of refuse being generated.

Some residents have complained that the containers are not being emptied regularly which makes residents to keep heaping their waste on and around the overstretched facility.

Meanwhile, residents are also expected to be disciplined with their method of waste management. Going through the metropolis, one must notice indiscriminate waste disposal which was not the practice in the previous years.

Lagosians must necessarily go by the adage that says ‘prevention is better than cure,’ and the government agency responsible for the waste evacuation must work as swift as possible to prevent any crisis that can occur as a result of indiscriminate disposal of waste in the metropolis.