The Lagos State Government says it will increase its waste evacuation capacity with an additional 220 trucks to improve waste management across the state.

The Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, disclosed this on Saturday while addressing journalists during the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in Festac, Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area.

Hamzat said the new trucks would supplement the existing Private Sector Participation (PSP) waste collection system and help address the increasing volume of waste generated across the state due to population growth.

“The state government will be bringing in another 220 trucks to make sure that we supplement our PSP. What we need our people to also do is to make sure that they patronise their PSP, not the cart pushers, because they are not organised. You don’t know where the waste is ending up,” he said.

The announcement comes about two months after Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the state would take delivery of 150 compactor trucks to strengthen waste evacuation.

Hamzat said the increasing population of Lagos had resulted in a corresponding rise in daily waste generation, making residents’ cooperation critical to effective waste management.

He urged residents to dispose of waste properly and avoid dumping refuse in canals, warning that blocked waterways could obstruct water flow and worsen flooding.

The deputy governor also encouraged communities to organise regular environmental sanitation exercises, with a target of having residents clean their surroundings at least once a month.

“We cannot be a people without a healthy environment. It doesn’t matter what we do, a cleaner environment is what makes a city or a state sustainable,” he said.

Also speaking, the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, said waste management in Lagos was improving, attributing the progress to the deployment of 24-hour emergency response teams and measures to address challenges at landfills and dumpsites.

Wahab said the government had intensified engagement with PSP operators to improve waste collection and intervened in areas where the Lagos State Waste Management Authority would ordinarily not operate.

He said PSP operators had been assured of government support to improve their services, while residents were expected to pay for waste collection in line with the polluter-pays principle.

The commissioner also disclosed that Lagos was transitioning from a traditional linear waste management system, where waste is collected and dumped, to a circular system that involves recovering waste and converting it into useful resources.

According to him, the transition had led to the development of material recovery facilities in Badagry and Epe, as well as transfer stations at Soluyi and Olusosun.

On the activities of cart pushers, Wahab said the government was engaging them but would not adopt measures that could create additional environmental or security challenges.

He said investigations showed that some cart pushers dumped collected waste in drainage channels and road medians, contributing to environmental problems and flooding.

Wahab also expressed concern over reports linking some cart pushers to criminal activities, including the cutting and theft of metals, stressing that the government could not adopt a policy that would worsen security challenges in the state.