Who’s to blame as refuse heaps swamp Lagos?
SKAiF NewsNG SNN
In 2025, Lagos State showcased vibrancy in infrastructure development and relentless ambition to be a mega city, among other potential.
Read Also: Lagos: Residents, traders lament as refuse swamp Ajegunle Market
However, the Africa’s fifth fastest-growing sub-national economy was weighed down by some urban failures, especially poor environmental sanitation.
In spite of successes recorded by the Sanwo-Olu administration in infrastructure development, agriculture, tourism and health, housing, transport and waterfront and many other areas, heaps of refuse characterised the commercial nerve centre in 2025.
Critics say Lagos State Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, alongside Lagos State Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, made visible efforts in keeping Lagos clean, but filth remained at the various corners of the state, frustrating its mega city moves as far as cleanliness is concerned.
On highways and inner-city roads such as Ikorodu Road, Agege Motor Road, Oshodi axis, Apapa corridor, CMS stretch, and some parts of Surulere, numerous piles of garbage and discarded waste were scattered.
By mid-2025, blocked drains repeatedly triggered flash floods at Mushin, Alimosho, Ajegunle and Lekki Phase II, with some residents expressing concern about weak enforcement and monitoring frameworks, while others blame the residents for recalcitrancy.
A teacher, Mrs Nkechi Mba cautioned that poor sanitation in the commercial centre could pose a health hazard, urging collective efforts in tackling it.
She appealed to Lagos residents to comply with sanitation laws and properly dispose their refuse, urging LAWMA to intensify efforts to manage waste to improve environmental sanitation.
“There should be sanitation officers checking the activities of restaurants at this point in time,” she said.
Sharing her view on Instagram, a popular content creator, Kofoworola Bamidele (Kofo_unfilterterd on Instagram), said: “Lagos deserves a cleaner, healthier environment.
“This can only be achieved through structured sanitation with regular waste collection.”
She claimed that waste collectors had not visited her community, Ayobo, in more than a month.
Bamidele called for more public education/campaigns on sanitation in schools, markets and other public places to encourage civic responsibility.
“These steps will ensure that sanitation efforts are effective, practical and sustainable.
LAWMA MD reacts
Reacting, the Managing Director of LAWMA, Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin, said that the authority had not relented in efforts to dispose refuse in time.
He blamed presence of heaps of refuse in some parts of Lagos on recalcitrant attitude of some residents and poor performance of some Private Sector Participation (PSP) operators.
He said that many Lagos residents failed to pay for disposal of their refuse and would not hesitate to dispose their waste indiscriminately.
“Thank you for reaching out and for sharing the photos. Those locations are being cleared routinely (daily and sometimes twice daily).
“What the pictures show is a persistent behavioural issue compounded by service gaps on those corridors.
“PSP operators assigned to parts of that axis have not performed to standard, and we are taking steps to correct that, including changing the operators where necessary.
”In addition, some residents simply don’t want to pay for waste and prefer to place their waste on road median because they know that a LAWMA truck will eventually clear it,” he said.
He gave the assurance that LAWMA was implementing strategies to tackle that issues.
“We are implementing a stop-gap arrangement with community leaders and local stakeholders to end the practice of dropping waste on the median.
”Residents will be directed to hold their waste until LAWMA-supported trucks arrive, so it can be loaded directly into the truck rather than left on the road.
“We are fabricating and deploying additional skip bins along the routes to provide proper collection points,” Gbadegesin said.
According to him, when the bins are in place, LAWMA’s waste-policing and monitoring personnel will be stationed around the points to prevent residents from dumping refuse on road medians and other wrong places, as well as ensure prompt refuse evacuation.
“Our focus this year is stronger operator accountability, better collection infrastructure on high-pressure corridors, and stricter enforcement against illegal refuse dumping so that these road medians stop becoming recurring flashpoints.
“This process will be applied to routes experiencing similar issues around the state,” Gbadegesin said.
Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, also gave the assurance that necessary steps were being taken to address the issues.
”LAWMA and the ministry are carrying out interventions to complement the efforts of the PSP operators,” the commissioner said.
Analysts note that Lagos State has made heavy investments in waste management and introduced technology-enabled drainage mapping, urging effective implementation to close gaps.
They urge the state government to urgently evacuate heaps of refuse across the state, adequately enforce environmental sanitation laws and effectively supervise PSP operators to avoid waste management crisis and its consequences. NAN/Aderonke Ojediran
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