On a brand new episode of “Your Neighbourhood and You” a program that aims at educating the public on issues relating to the environment and urban development, a channel for lower socioeconomic status groups to get their voices heard.
In his introductory remarks, TPL Ogunseyi Ayodele, the program’s sponsor and a town planner, indicated that the topic to be covered was waste management in the state of Ondo, noting that Akure has a population of over 700,000 and is expected to reach over 1 million in the next ten years, He continued by saying that managing the current, expanding population is extremely difficult. He went further to say that many individuals are relocating to metropolitan areas, with the annual migration rate being 3.33 percent.
The guest speaker, Mr. Omode Samuel the General Manager of Waste Management Authority was introduced to speak on the rising concern of waste management in Ondo state. When asked what the Waste Management Board scope and jurisdiction was in Ondo State, Mr Omode Samuel stated that Waste Management Authority was established in the year 1999, and what led to that was the rising population of the metropolis that is the capital cities. He stated that there was a world bank program on urban improvement, and part of the components of the program was on how to effectively manage urban waste and that led to the creation of agency in 1999. He added that the agency was created not only for the capital city but also to put policy measures in place. According to him the Waste Management Authority sees to it that proper and effective management of Waste in the entire state, he continued by saying the law was put in place in 2002 to drive the process of effective Waste Management in Ondo state.
He went on to say the content of the law over the years has been the driving force of the operations of the agency, I.e the involvement of the public and private sectors, in Waste Management operations and and also to help citizens know more about their responsibilities as citizens of the state. He stated that the Waste Management Authority has departments set up in accordance with the organization’s goals. For instance, they have a department in charge of reacting to these operations, as well as the Department of Enforcement and the Department of Waste Management Community Mobilization. He continued by saying that these divisions are performing their duties to ensure that the State’s waste is managed effectively.
These are some of the things, he said, that motivate the agency. He continued that unfortunately, the operation of the agency has not progressed as far as expected, he said that despite efforts to get the attention of the entire state they have only been able to get the attention of a few Local government areas, He stated that the Waste Management Authority have many things they’re currently working on.
When asked if there was any difference between the Waste Management Authority and the State Environmental Protection Agency, He answered that the State Environmental Protection was formed in the year 1993. And that from the name the State Environmental Protection it was more or less like the enforcement arm of the state Ministry of Environment. He added that waste management can constitute pollution within the environment. Stating that was why sometimes their operations may look somehow similar, because according to him it is the job of the agency SEP to ensure pollutants are removed from the environment, and that also ventures into the angle of waste management, because any sort of waste that isn’t properly managed is going to be a pollutant to man.
He said that however, they have a clear mandate which indicates the duties of the Waste Management Agency. He said that their duties were to ensure that all waste wherever they are, are effectively being managed and the management i.e. proper waste collection, and proper waste transportation, proper waste handling before transportation, also proper waste storage. He added that some of their objectives was about how to promote waste reduction, how to treat waste, the aspect of recycling, and the aspect of reducing or eliminating waste toxicity that may harm the environment so if we are able to do our own. He added that their mission is to reduce the number of pollution within the environment.
When asked what was the General Manager’s take on the issue that the agency seems to be overwhelmed with the collection of waste in major cities, the guest speaker stated that the essence of having the Waste Management agency is to be able to properly manage the waste that are being generated by humans. He stated that the challenge of waste collection was due to a number of issues. He stated that trash bins should be separated for organic and non organic materials as it would take more time of the professionals in charge to sort through trash that are not separated, According to him, in some other parts of the world, people are being trained and educated that they have to separate their trash stating that organic materials should be placed in a different trash bin, from non organic materials.
He added that if people do so the level of the challenge in trash collecting would reduce drastically. He also stated that accessibility was also one of the key issues, he stated that the government should put in place the legislation that will define the roads. He added that the agency is trying to educate people on what to do in terms of recycling. He also added that the agency is trying their best to get people to know that they are also responsible for the proper management of their waste, and that private sectors also have to be involved in effective Waste management.
When asked why their trash isn’t collected after making payment in certain areas which resulted in them having to burn their trash themselves, the speaker responded that burning of waste was an illegal practice in the State and that anyone caught in the act would face the law, He further went on to say that people who face such issues should lodge formal complaints as there would be no way for the Agency to be aware of such cases if they don’t lodge their complaints. He also added that some people are actively avoiding to pay for Waste disposal services and that these are some of the problems that they encounter. He added that they are willing to take on any private individual, private contractor that wants to get involved, the service main intent is to work effectively however, they also want to make profit out of that business because it is not able to finance itself.
On a number to call for complaints and questions, the speaker gave out the number 0803-560-1007.
When asked if the Agency was going into the direction of separating Waste, the GM stated that recently there is a high rise in scavengers who take out plastic trash and Cartons from Trash bins as they have now discovered that the Waste Management Industry can be a gold mine if done properly.