The Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has said no one living in the state is exempted from paying waste bills.

The LAWMA Managing Director, Ibrahim Odumboni, said this a statement issued on Tuesday.

Odumboni called on Lagos residents to support efforts of the Authority to rid the environment of filth by paying their waste bills promptly.

He said: “Payment for waste services is crucial to achieving the state’s vision of establishing a cleaner and livable environment.

“We want to appeal to all residents in the state, to make it a duty to pay their waste bills.

“This is very important because the operations of service providers rely heavily on people paying for waste services. As a matter of fact, nobody is exempted from this, including civil servant.

“For the sake of emphasis, there is no section of the Civil Service Rule that exempts government workers from paying for services rendered by Private Sector Participants (PSP) operators. This applies to every other profession.

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“We must take responsibility for the change we want to see in our environment. Anyone caught dumping wastes indiscriminately under the guise of belonging to a particular profession would be made to face the wrath of the law,” Odumboni stated.

The LAWMA boss reiterated the agency’s commitment to ensuring that every part of the metropolis was properly sanitised.

He said the agency has stepped up efforts to rid the environment of waste backlogs, through intensive morning and night operations.

“We deploy thousands of sweepers and waste collection trucks daily across major routes in the city, as well as ensure that waste generated by tenements is taken care of by PSP operators.

“We want to assure Lagos residents that we will not relent on our efforts to make the environment cleaner and healthier for all,” Odumboni said.

The LAWMA boss added the agency was also working with other agencies, such as Neighbourhood Watch and Motor Vehicle Administration Agency (MVAA), to check waste migration.

He described this as a situation where some residents move wastes generated at home in their vehicles, and dump while transiting to another point.

Odumboni called on the populace to embrace the culture of recycling and waste sorting from source, which apart from saving the environment from plastic pollution, had numerous economic benefits.

He further admonished residents to always bag and containerise their waste,while waiting for the arrival of assigned PSP operators.

He added that the practice of waste containerisation would eventually help curb littering and indiscriminate refuse disposal around the city.

The Star