A few week ago I wrote about the refuse gathering in every corner in Lagos. I thought it was bad then, but apparently Visionscape, the new company that took over from LAWMA had surprises in store for me.
On Monday I passed through Obalende. Every corner of Obalende, roundabout, sides of the road, under the bridge was filled with rubbish piled high. The whole place was smelly. To add salt to injury, a policeman was patrolling on a horse chasing away hawkers and stopping bus drivers from parking at random places, guess what the horse was doing? Spraying shit along the road. I scurried away from Obalende as fast as my legs could take me.
As the bus descended into the mainland, more piles of rubbish in different corners greeted us. On social media, people who could, were taking pictures trying to get Visionscape to do their work. On the Island, it is only slightly better, rubbish heaps start filling up bus stops as you go down towards Chevron/Ajah. Inside Lekki, by Freedom way, there are over 20 people sweeping sand off the road. Because once Lekki, VI and Ikoyi is clean, Lagos is clean.
This is a classic case of if it is not broken don’t fix it.
LAWMA was doing their job, almost perfectly if I might add. There was the occasional rubbish heap here and there but LAWMA was effective so why did they stop them? We have descended so low nowthat the new waste company is now priotising which rubbish to pack away first: the ones along the road or the ones in residential areas? Why do we have to pick?
I get the feeling that the company is overwhelmed, but they should have expected that, Lagos is huge city with bad waste habits. I mean the other day I still saw people throwing away snack wrappers and soft drink bottles, and bananas out of their cars onto the road.
My major concern, like I said in the other post, is what are we going to do when it starts raining? Rubbish plus flood? This is in addition to the Lassa fever still killing people in the country. Sigh. I can’t even imagine what Lagos will look like if this rain meets the rubbish in Lagos.
Meanwhile can you Lagosians STOP THROWING REFUSE AND STUFF EAT ALONG THE ROADS!
