Contrary to the stories making rounds that the Cleaner Lagos Initiative will put Private Sector Participants (PSP) operators in waste management out of business, the State Government has assured that the recently introduced would not send them out of jobs.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, in a series of posts on his Instagram page, said the new policy of government rather than take away jobs of the PSP operators as erroneously interpreted initially, would cause the expansion of their businesses and lead to creation of more jobs for the people.
The Governor said it was clear that the present structure of waste management was insufficient to guarantee a clean society befitting of a cosmopolitan mega-city like the State, adding that the sole aim of the CLI was to ensure a cleaner and healthier Lagos.
He said: “We have concessioned part of our environmental management to a foreign consortium whose job will be to keep the residential areas clean 24/7 and properly manage our waste disposal system to eliminate the environmental challenges.
“Our licensed waste management operators will service the commercial areas. Under this new arrangement, no jobs will be lost and no stakeholder will lose business. Rather, we will increase the business and create more jobs.
“The sole aim of our new environment policy is to ensure a cleaner and healthier Lagos. It is clear that the present structure cannot guarantee the clean society befitting of a cosmopolitan mega-city like ours and we no longer want people to shut down businesses in the name of environmental sanitation,” Governor Ambode said.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Lagos State Community Development Advisory Council (CDAC), the umbrella body for all the Community Development Committees (CDCs) and Community Development Associations (CDAs) in the State, Alhaji Tajudeen Quadri has urged the people to support government in its quest to massively address the environmental challenges confronting the State, describing the CLI as a good policy aimed at ensuring public health safety.
In an interview on Sunday, Quadri commended Governor Ambode for the initiative and advised all critical stakeholders to cooperate with government to make the initiative a huge success, saying doing so would eventually be in the collective interest of all.
He said: “As someone very close to the communities by virtue of my position as Chairman of all the CDAs in Lagos State, I believe the Cleaner Lagos Initiative is a welcome development and by the slogan of the present administration in the State which is talking about the progress of the State, this is another right step in the right direction.
“If you look around now, you will find that the Streets are becoming dirty and some of the PSP operators are not up and doing in terms of clearing of refuse both in the residential and industrial areas and the rapid development we are having in the State now called for an urgent action in that regard.
“For the State Government to have come up with this idea, I think it is a good development because apart from having a cleaner and healthier environment, this initiative will also facilitate employment for thousands of people and I want to say a big kudos to the State Governor, Mr Ambode.”
