4th May, 2012
Traders in some markets in Lagos on Thursday urged waste management officials to improve on waste collection in markets.
The traders made the call in interviews with the news Agency of Nigeria (NAN) during the weekly sanitation exercise for traders.
When NAN visited some markets during the exercise, traders were actively clearing and evacuating refuse and cleaning drains to ensure a tidy environment that would also cope with any heavy rainfall.
Markets visited were Miniru Baruwa, Lawanson; Idi-Araba; Oyingbo and Yaba.
At Miniru Baruwa Lawanson market, the traders complained that waste managers who were supposed to cart away refuse from the weekly cleaning, usually delay in doing their job.
Mr. Promise Okon, a trader in the market, told NAN that the waste managers now pick up refuse twice a month, instead of on weekly basis.
Okon said that the traders use cart pushers to move their refuse because earlier appeals for assistance to the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) for a truck has failed.
“We have complained to LAWMA to help us get a truck that we can dump our refuse into after sanitation every week, but no response.
“We now employ someone who helps us to carry the refuse to the expressway at night for the LAWMA trucks to pick up.
“We have been warned not to patronise cart pushers but no alternatives have been provided, so we make do with our own alternative,’’ Okon said.
At Oyingbo and Yaba markets, traders said more trucks should be kept at the markets due to the huge amount of waste being generated each day.
Mrs. Ganiyat Adams, a trader in Oyingbo, said that the refuse collectors were not showing up at the right time, and the huge refuse always constituted environmental nuisance.
At Yaba, near the construction site of the new market, traders called for the inclusion of a major refuse collection point in the market plan to keep it clean.
NAN reports that the essence of the weekly sanitation exercises is for traders to clean up their environment and to properly discharge the waste generated in each market.