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Lagos State Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat announced Saturday that the state will add 220 waste evacuation trucks to its fleet, a fresh expansion coming barely two months after Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu announced 150 compactor trucks were set for delivery.
Hamzat disclosed the new procurement while addressing journalists during the state’s monthly environmental sanitation exercise in Festac, Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area. He said the additional trucks would supplement the state’s existing Private Sector Participation waste collection system rather than replace it. “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,” Hamzat said.
Addressing the state’s broader waste challenge, Hamzat linked the growing volume of daily refuse to Lagos’s expanding population, saying more people living and working in the state translates directly into more waste requiring evacuation. “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,” he said.
He said residents share responsibility for proper waste disposal, warning that refuse dumped in canals can obstruct water flow and worsen flooding across the state. Hamzat said the government is encouraging communities to organize regular environmental sanitation exercises, with a target of residents cleaning their surroundings at least once a 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.
On environmental management specific to Festac, Hamzat noted that the Federal Housing Authority holds responsibilities within the district but said residents and property managers remain bound by Lagos State environmental regulations regardless. He commended the local government chairman and residents for participating in the sanitation exercise, calling community involvement essential to sustaining cleanliness across the state.
Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources Tokunbo Wahab, also speaking at the event, said waste management in the state is improving, crediting the deployment of 24-hour emergency response teams and measures addressing challenges at landfills and dumpsites. Wahab said the government has intensified engagement with PSP operators to improve collection, including intervening in areas the Lagos State Waste Management Authority would not ordinarily service directly.
Wahab said the government has assured PSP operators of continued support to help them improve service, while residents are expected to pay for waste collection services rendered under a polluter-pays arrangement, which he said ensures operators receive adequate backing while residents receive the service they pay for.
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According to Wahab, the state is transitioning from a traditional linear waste management model, in which waste is collected and dumped, toward a circular system that recovers and converts waste into usable resources. He said the shift has driven development of material recovery facilities in Badagry and Epe, along with transfer stations at Soluyi and Olusosun.
On cart pushers, informal waste collectors operating outside the PSP system, Wahab said the government is engaging them directly but will not adopt measures that could create greater environmental or security risks. He said investigations have found that waste collected by some cart pushers is often dumped in drainage channels and road medians, contributing to flooding and broader environmental problems. He also raised concern over reports linking some cart pushers to criminal activity, including the cutting and theft of metals, saying the government cannot pursue a policy that would worsen security conditions in the state.
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Lagos’s Private Sector Participation model, under which the state licenses private operators to handle household and commercial waste collection within designated zones, has functioned as the backbone of the city’s formal waste management structure for over a decade, a structure officials have repeatedly sought to reinforce against competition from unlicensed cart pushers who typically charge lower informal fees but operate without oversight or accountability for where collected waste ultimately ends up. The state’s landfills, including the Olusosun site referenced by Wahab as a transfer station location, have faced recurring capacity strain as Lagos’s population, estimated among the largest of any African city, continues to expand faster than formal waste infrastructure in many areas.
Neither Hamzat nor Wahab specified a delivery timeline for the 220 new trucks, their cost, or how they would be distributed across the state’s local government areas, nor did the officials clarify whether the newly announced trucks are separate from or connected to the 150 compactor trucks Sanwo-Olu announced two months earlier.
