Flooding: Wahab outlines 6 month waste infrastructure plan

The Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, has revealed that the government is adopting a 6 month waste infrastructure plan to combat the state’s waste crisis and drainage blockages.

In a series of tweets on X over the weekend, Wahab responding to criticisms by the former Labour Party gubernatorial candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (GRV) outlined structural reforms being implemented to halt flooding.

He noted that the state’s partnership with international partners will begin to yield tangible results in the coming months.

Addressing the core environmental challenges facing the megacity, Wahab emphasized that long-term sustainability requires moving past temporary fixes to deep infrastructural reforms.

To tackle waste accumulation and the severe flooding caused by blocked urban channels, he noted that Ministry has deployed a multi-pronged strategy centered around a complete overhaul of the state’s landfill system. Construction is actively underway on Transfer Loading Stations and Material Recovery Facilities to permanently phase out traditional, overcapacity landfill operations at Olusosun in Ojota and Solous III in Igando.

He added that over the next six months, up to 4,000 tonnes of daily waste will be diverted to specialized sorting and recycling hubs in Ikorodu and Badagry to keep waste out of the city center.

Acknowledging that some areas face severe delays, Wahab identified high diesel costs, expensive truck parts, and poor rainy-season road access as critical bottlenecks on the ground.

He however noted that LAWMA is currently sanctioning underperforming private sector operators and restructuring 27 weak routes, while deploying round-the-clock teams to clear 3,000 illegal blackspots daily on road medians, market edges, and bus stops.