PROPERTY ARTICLES

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has said that the state government would continue to provide good governance to the people of the state. Fashola said this during the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) by the Lagos State Government with the Clinton Foundation and the Konsadem Consortium to develop the first modern integrated solid waste project.

He described the project as a partnership among three credible brands.

According to the him,, rather than diminish, the government would consistently strive to increase the commitment to governance towards a realisation of noble expectations.

Fashola expressed the hope that the integrated solid waste management project will deliver a model for Africa.

His words" I only wish our successful consortium the very best of luck as we embark on this most innovative Solid waste management project that will certainly signal the arrival of best practices in Solid waste management in Lagos State, in this country and in the Continent of Africa"

While thanking the Clinton Foundation and Konsadem, Fashola also congratulated all agencies of the state government for achieving the milestone, adding that the next task is to keep to assigned time schedule and deliver the first phase of the project.

Speaking on behalf of the Clinton Foundation, its Country Director, Dr Owens Wiwa, said the Clinton Foundation is delighted to partner with the progressive government of Lagos State on the integrated solid waste management project.

"Working with the Lagos State Government has been very productive and the Clinton Foundation is very pleased with the expected outcome which is the reduction of Carbon emission and a very positive contribution to global efforts to address the issue of Climate Change", he added.

According to the Clinton Foundation Country Director, the signing of the memorandum of understanding a few days before the gathering of world leaders at Copenhagen is indicative of the proactive nature of the Lagos State Government.

Dr Wiwa’s words: "It is not very often that it happens in Africa that you find a State Government working assiduously on a major project like this and we at the Clinton Foundation are very happy with this. We will continue to give all the required technical support to ensure that the project is successfully completed".

Also speaking, the Managing Director of Lagos Waste Management Authority, (LAWMA), Mr. Ola Oresanya said four years ago, the state gave an overview of what it intends to do for four years and has been implementing it in stages.

He said the state is at a stage now that it is institutionalizing best practices in landfill management and gas recovery and working to ensure that most of the processes of management is classified as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

He said the present administration is not comfortable with the way the land fill sites are being managed, but is doing its best to mitigate what currently exists.

Said he: "We are building structures that would be comparable with any of such structure of similar facilities anywhere in the world".

He was certain that the people of Lagos will start seeing something new in terms of the waste collecting and storage capabilities of the agency soon.

He added that emphasis is now shifting to treatment of waste in such a way that the treatment would come out from the waste already compressed at the various transfer loading stations in the state.

Mr. Oresanya informed that the state is collaborating with foreign companies from South Africa, Europe and Cairo to implement the new process.

Mr. Oresanya said when fully functional, the state would be able to generate electricity, while most of what used to be considered as waste would no longer going to be waste but turned into something very viable.

The LAWMA boss added that it is all about the waste to wealth project of the State Government to give it a higher value while adopting and better processing.

Also speaking, the Chairman of Konsadem Associates Limited, Engineer Motunde Adeyemi, said the programme for which an MOU has just been signed is an innovative design which would collect and treat solid waste with Lagos and the environment becoming more cleaner.

He said this is not the first time the outfit is working with the State Government adding that it has worked on several projects such as the study it did in conjunction with a company on the sewage system.

He said Konsadem has also worked on the planning and design for the sewage of Lagos that involved Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Ikeja in conjunction with a Dutch company.

He reiterated that he has also done a previous study on the discharge of sewage into the ocean together with an American company, expressing the hope that it would be a successful collaboration.

Present at the meeting were Special Adviser to the Governor on the Environment, Mr. Sesan Olanrewaju, the Managing Director of LAWMA, Mr. Ola Oresanya, Deputy Director, William J Clinton Foundation, Mr Joshua Chu, Managing Director of Konsadem Associates Engineer Bola Olowe and other top government functionaries.

It would be recalled that the State in 2008 initiated the process of addressing the challenges presented by the management of solid waste and as part of measures to achieve these, it commenced discussion with the Clinton Foundation on solid waste management intervention with the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA).

The project is to be completed via Finance, Design, Build, Operate and Transfer(FDBOT) structure by the private sector under a 20 year Concession agreement for the development of a comprehensive project which includes closure, collection and utilization of landfill gas (LFG) the two existing dumpsites while incorporating a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Financing Structure.

The project also includes the establishment of an Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility (IWMF) comprising of a Material Recovery Facility (MRF), Recycling and Composting Facility as well as a sanitary (Bale fill) landfill for residual waste.

The first phase, the integrated solid waste management site is located in the Epe area of Lagos and will be designed to accept a maximum 900 tons of municipal waste daily.

One of the advantages of this system is that close to 180,000 tons of waste usually disposed of at the landfill sites is processed for reuse through recycling and composting. This will reduce greenhouse gas emission by approximately 95,000 metric cubic tons per year.