The above came to my attention over the weekend. One of my neighbors called me aside to ask me how I have been disposing my refuse. I looked at him like, duh! “what kind of a question is that?”, only for him to ask me the last time I saw Kole-Kole Mallams on our street. I couldn’t give a definite answer as I usually go out very early and come back late.
I told him I still availed myself of the services of one kole kole Mallam about a week ago. My neighbor wasted no time to school me on the new development by the Lagos State Government, as he has been informed. He even showed me bills that the LAWMA(Lagos State Waste Management Agency) had been bringing over to our house since May 2009. I was like, what dah!
I am surprised to see that the Lagos LAWMA has started charging us NGN1,000 (One thousand Naira) per month for an idea to use their dump-trucks to pack wastes around town. I mean, when did Lagos become New York City?
Here is the mathematics that I and my neighbor sat down to do:
- with NGN1,000(One thousand Naira), this means we would share it at NGN500(Five hundred Naira) each? God forbid!
- in the LAWMA documents, they say that their dump trucks would come to our environment once a week. Unfortunately, its over 1-year since I packed into my present palace, and I’ve not even seen 1-LAWMA truck passing by. They haven’t been packing my refuse, coz I’ve been using Kole-Kole ever since. Why are they bringing bills for work they have not done? The same observation was made by my informant.
- Considering the host of bad roads in Lagos, did the waste project managers at the LAWMA sit down to deliberate if/whether their trucks can access 80% of streets in residential areas in Lagos state? this is assuming that 80% of roads in residential areas are accessible.
- How and why should I pay NGN500 per month to the Lagos State government for them to pack my refuse if I cant drink up to a total of NGN500 pure water per month? NGN500 will buy me 9-bags of pure water, and No, I cant consume 9-bags for a whole month.
I discussed the above with another neighbor of mine, living in an adjacent compound. Their own bill is NGN3,000 (three thousand Naira only). She told me that we are still lucky.
She continued that a friend of hers living in another part of Lagos state intimated her of their own experience with these LAWMA trucks. The truck that comes to their area parks at a distance that requires a 5-minute to and another 5-minute walk fro. That is besides the fact that everyone in their area has to lift bin-bags / other containers filled with garbage on their heads and start running towards wherever the truck parked. Father, mother and child – they all have to share in the garbage throwing responsibility just because there is no access road to their house. According to her, Okadas were the best thing in that area.
Now, I wonder what kind of service those people are paying for if a 10-minute dedicated time is required just to go throw away one bag of refuse. Governor Fashola, are you listening. Lagos is not supposed to be a mega city by force and fire.
Back to our former Kole-Kole’s:
My opinion is that rather than chasing away Kole Kole’s with the assistance of the Nigerian Police, the LAWMA should have harnessed their (Kole Kole’s) activities. These Mallams would pack our refuse and even offer to sweep around our premises for an extra fee, as long as we provide them the broom. They would push their carts up and down, giving us the advantage to dispose of refuse as soon as it comes. They would segregate their bin-bags into one for plastics, another for metals, another for decayable material, another for wood, etc. This is besides the fact that some even offer to buy plastic / glass bottles as long as they are in good order. Every re-usable waste given to Mallams are usually sold and used for other purposes. The LAWMA could have utilized the services of these Mallams, and rather focus on recycling of re-usable waste, rather than choosing to go packing themselves.
With these LAWMA’s trucks, every kind of refuse would be compressed together, in the end producing more waste than before. Besides, their visit once a week will result in people having to store their wastes / refuse in corners in and around their houses, thereby creating a dirtier home / street environment alltogether. I wonder if the LAWMA put these considerations in thought before embarking on their endeavor.
While their waste packing initiative is a good one, its a good one in the wrong direction. How can someone who isn’t having his/her three daily meals spend NGN500 per month to throw away refuse? in this kind of economy.
Governor Fashy, are you listening?
WeeFree
July 21, 2010
In my area the LAWMA trucks don’t show up at all, and yet they send us huge bills. The occupants of my building said they are never going to pay and LAWMA keeps incrementing the bill monthly.
When we complained we were told that a PSP (Private Contractor) truck comes round once a week. That posses another challenge for us because everyone in my building is a white collar worker, by 7:00am week days the house is usually empty as we all head off to work and we don’t have a gate man. So we ignored the bill and employed a mallam that surreptitiously comes during the wee hours of the morning to pack away our refuse before KAI and Police men start patrolling the streets.
On one of the impromptu public holiday recently given by the Federal Government, we saw that the PSP truck did come around, however, our street was a sight to behold as people both young and old chased the truck down the street tossing refuse into the back. On inquiry a neighbor from the building next to us informed us that this is the standard practice, the truck never stops, but it slowly drives down the street honking it’s horn, it’s now up to us to dash out of our apartments grab some of the refuse in already placed in the compound and dash unto the road after the PSP truck which might now be 5 houses away.
Not willing to engage in the undignified act of garbage truck chasing, we maintained the status quo and the LAWMA bill kept increasing. And recently we learnt that LAWMA has been taking whole buildings and their occupants to court and locking them out for non payment of waste collection bill, but we remain resolute. May God deliver us from taxation without representation in Lagos.