By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The Lagos State Government will deploy an additional 220 trucks to strengthen waste evacuation across the state and complement the existing Private Sector Participation (PSP) system, Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat has said.
Hamzat disclosed this on Saturday, 29 August, 2026 during the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in Festac, Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area, saying the additional trucks were necessary to cope with the rising volume of waste generated by the state’s growing population.
The announcement comes barely two months after Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the state would take delivery of 150 compactor trucks to improve waste collection and evacuation.
Hamzat explained that the new trucks would increase the government’s capacity to evacuate refuse while urging residents to patronise approved PSP operators rather than cart pushers.
“The state government will be bringing in another 220 trucks to make sure that we supplement our PSP. What we need our people to also do is to make sure that they patronise their PSP, not the cart pushers, because they are not organised. You don’t know where the waste is ending up,” he said.
According to him, the influx of people into Lagos had increased the amount of waste generated daily, making effective evacuation and responsible disposal increasingly important.
“A lot of people are coming to Lagos, and therefore they generate waste. So part of what you can see that we are doing is that we are getting many more trucks to actually go and evacuate,” Hamzat said.
He also urged residents to take responsibility for proper waste disposal, warning that refuse dumped in canals could obstruct water flow and aggravate flooding.
The Deputy Governor encouraged communities to organise regular environmental sanitation exercises, with the state targeting at least one community-led cleanup every month.
“We cannot be a people without a healthy environment. It doesn’t matter what we do, a cleaner environment is what makes a city or a state sustainable,” he said.
Hamzat further urged residents and property managers to comply with approved waste disposal regulations, noting that although the Federal Housing Authority had responsibilities in the Festac district, environmental compliance remained essential.
He commended the Amuwo-Odofin Local Government chairman and residents for participating in the sanitation exercise, stressing that community involvement was critical to sustaining environmental cleanliness.
Also speaking, the state Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, said waste management was improving through the deployment of 24-hour emergency response teams and interventions aimed at addressing challenges at landfills and dumpsites.
Wahab said the government had intensified engagement with PSP operators to improve collection, adding that the Lagos State Waste Management Authority had intervened in areas where PSP operators ordinarily could not provide adequate services.
He said the government had assured PSP operators of its support while residents were expected to pay for services rendered under the polluter-pays principle.
The commissioner said the policy would enable PSP operators to provide better services while ensuring that residents received value for the fees they paid.
Wahab further disclosed that Lagos was moving away from the traditional system of collecting and dumping waste towards a circular waste-management model in which discarded materials are recovered and converted into useful resources.
He said the transition had resulted in the development of material recovery facilities in Badagry and Epe, alongside transfer stations at Soluyi and Olusosun.
On the activities of cart pushers, Wahab said the government was engaging them but would not adopt measures capable of creating additional environmental or security challenges.
He explained that investigations had shown that some cart pushers dumped collected refuse in drainage channels and road medians, thereby contributing to blocked waterways and flooding.
Wahab also expressed concern over reports linking some cart pushers to criminal activities, including the cutting and theft of metals, saying the government would not implement a policy that could worsen security challenges in Lagos.
Source: Punch
