The Oyo State Government in partnership with Mottainai Recycling Limited has met with traders and artisans to proffer collective solutions to the waste management problems.
A statement by the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr Wasiu Olatubosun in Ibadan indicated that the meeting was part of efforts to maintain a clean and healthy environment.
Earlier in his remark, the Commissioner for Information, Hon. Wasiu Olatunbosun noted that government cannot make the state clean alone without involving all the stakeholders and calling on them for support.
Also speaking at the event, the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Abiodun Oni, urged traders and artisans to embrace the new waste management of zero waste, zero budget initiative.
He said the Governor Seyi Makinde-led administration was harnessing opportunities in public and private waste management to drive a sustainable city and urban circular economy.
The Commissioner further said that the present administration wants to make life bearable for residents with the involvement of a consultant (Mottainai Recycling Limited) to make the state clean and habitable with individual input.
“We have had this challenge of cleaning the city. We just thought that as we continue the process of keeping the city clean, we should engage the stakeholders as well”, Oni said.
“This is a new initiative that we introduced: a zero budget initiative. The people should expect a clean environment, while we also target a waste to wealth initiative”, he added.
He said the Government was strategizing such that the traders would pay a little token to get their wastes cleared, he, therefore, urged them to cooperate with the consultant, in ensuring a healthy and clean environment.
He said the State government launched the initiative to overhaul the state’s solid waste management system.
“We must be able to challenge the people and communities who produce the majority of the waste to exercise greater responsibility in the disposal of their waste, while also exploring funding strategies to address the issues”, he said.
He said, “we must be aware that we are all the recipients of personal deviations and that waste generated must be disposed off through the proper waste management channels”.
Speaking also, the Managing Director, Mottainai Recycling, Mr. Ade Adewuyi said the new initiative would allow residents to pay little or nothing for waste management.
He said his firm was set to sort and buy wastes from waste creators and generators in the state, pointing out that flooding and epidemics are caused by solid waste being dumped in various places, hence the need to ensure solid waste recycling.
Speaking on behalf of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), the Executive Chairman, Lagelu Local Government, Hon. Kazeem Gbadamosi commended the initiative, adding that the consultant needed to work with local governments in the state.
He said that waste management in the state ought to be a collective responsibility of all, urging residents to cooperate with the new consultant.
In her words, a market leader, Chief Mrs. Labake Lawal enjoined the State Government to consider the reintroduction of weekly and monthly environmental sanitation.
She equally expressed her concerns about the State’s waste management problems, adding that the Market leadership was ready to work with the State Government and the new consultant.
“Our State, like many other developing nations around the world, faces difficulties and inadequacies in waste management, which are particularly acute in Oyo State,” she said.
Oluwakayode Banjo
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