LAWMA Urges Against Disposing Refuse To Cart Pushers
By Felix Kuyinu
The Lagos State Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, has warned residents in the state to desist from giving out refuse to cart pushers.
The agency cautioned the inhabitants against patronizing illegal waste operators noting that Indiscriminate dumping of waste pose significant environmental and health risks.
LAWMA Director of Medical Services, Health and Safety, Modupe Okoh, emphasized that the prohibited act violates the environmental laws of the state.
Okoh, speaking during a stakeholders’ forum on Wednesday, stressed that waste pollution contributed to diseases and it’s transmission such as the cholera outbreak experienced in year 2024.
At the event tagged: ‘Community-Centered WASH Interventions to Control Cholera’, the LAWMA Director said: “LAWMA authority has continued to intensify its monitoring and enforcement activities to clamp down on illegal waste collectors across the state.
“The cart-pushers, who operate outside the formal waste management system, often dispose wastes in unauthorised locations, leading to blocked drainages and poor sanitation conditions. This worsens flooding and other public health hazards in the state.
She added, “Like we all know, you can’t actually separate effective waste management and disease prevention.
“Either the surface water or the underground water, if your waste is not properly managed, you are going to have pollution at the surface level or the underground level and that is where infection starts. Once it is contaminated, it can spread to every area.
“So we at LAWMA ensure that your waste is effectively collected, transported, taken to the right treatment facility, and properly disposed of, which is what we do every day. We work 24 hours; there’s no sleeping for us at LAWMA, to ensure that your waste is properly handled and managed.
“So, we have gone beyond; we are actually the first point of contact in preventive healthcare as it comes to waste management.
“All waste generated in each household, in schools, in hospitals, is picked up by us, properly transported, managed, and disposed of so it does not contaminate both surface and groundwater.
“We realize the need to keep enlightening the public on the need to ensure proper waste management. They need to control their waste in the right containers, store their waste, and give their waste to the right operators, the enlisted operators, to handle their waste, not to truck pushers, because the same truck pushers you give your waste to go straight and pour it into your drain, and your drain is blocked. And then we have the same effect of contamination of water, whether it is surface or groundwater.
“So, please ensure that you personalize the right operators to pick your waste. It is still a game-changer question. So we still have that gap in waste management. But we are working 24 hours to ensure your waste is properly handled by LAWMA, so we can actually prevent disease.”
