NGO wants Lagos govt to provide proper sewage management infrastructure

The Waste Management Society of Nigeria (WAMASON), an NGO, has advised the Lagos State Government to put in place the infrastructure needed for proper sewage management.

The President of the society, Prof. Oladele Osibanjo, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday.

Osibanjo was speaking as part of activities to mark the 2017 World Water Day, which has been themed ‘Water and Wastewater’.

According to him, people dump human waste indiscriminately because the infrastructure to manage the material is non-existent.

“There is no central sewage plant in Lagos.

“The state is also lacking infrastructure for proper sewage management.

“As such the water bodies in the state have become breeding grounds for all forms of diseases.

“Most boreholes are contaminated and that has resulted in many people suffering from water-borne diseases,” he said.

Osibanjo said the water pipes running through the drainage systems have increased the likelihood of people contracting water-borne diseases.

According to him, the state is in dire need of a master plan for sanitation and a central sewage plant.

The WAMASON president advised the state government to set up a unit that would be responsible for monitoring the construction of septic tanks.

He said the measure would go a long way toward the proper management of human waste at the home level.

Osibanjo said considering its status, Lagos state should not allow its sewage management system to dilapidate.

During a presentation at the World Water Week in Stockholm in Sept. 2013, with the title: 'Implementation of water and sanitation policies and practices within the spatial plans of Lagos, Nigeria', the Lagos government said the state was the most populous city in sub-Saharan Africa as it had an estimated population of 17 million (2009).

The government said its population was predicted to grow to more than 24 million by 2015, making it the world’s 3rd largest city after Tokyo and Mumbai.

Mr Olutoyin Ayinde, the then Commissioner, Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning & Urban Development, said the sanitation sector was lagging behind as in some local government areas, up to 34% of the households used unimproved latrines given the rudimentary system of sewage disposal.

Ayinde had said that 90 per cent of households used septic tanks and soak away systems, with the sludge trucked to 9 official sedimentation points.

He mentioned an “existing’’Sustainable Sewage and Sanitation Strategy (SSSS) and 5-year Strategic Investment Plan for Sewage.

He said the strategy would see the state government renovating and developing waste water treatment plants, creating a sewage master plan, as well as laying 5,250 kilometres of sewers in the area.