Governor Seyi Makinde has announced a new waste management architecture in Oyo State. He has clearly stated that the Private Sector Participants (PSPs) who had been working with the Oyo State Waste Management Agency have been disengaged. However, these PSPs were also asked to reapply to continue working with the state. At first, this might appear confusing. But information made available to Oyo Affairs shows this is an essential part of the new architecture.
The PSPs who reapply will be screened and verified under a franchise arrangement to be overseen and monitored by Mottainai Recycling Ltd. “The truth is that a lot of these PSPs do not have the capacity to clean up the state. This is why some areas are served, others are underserved, and some are not served at all. The result is that waste ends up on the medians,” Mr Adewuyi asserts. “This is why we were invited to work with the state to start with.”
The screening exercise is a collaboration between the Oyo State Waste Management Authority (OYOWMA) and Mottainai Recycling Ltd. OYOWMA has already announced that verification will commence on Monday, August 1, 2022, and will run through Friday, August 5, 2022, in 5 batches.
Altogether, 235 PSPs have reapplied for this exercise. “Our job basically is to act as gatekeepers,” Mr Adewuyi explains. “We will be working with the PSPs that have been screened and verified as having the capacity to work. This means that they have compactors and other necessary equipment to work with.”
To ensure that the public is able to identify the Mottainai Accredited Franchisees, each franchisee will be mandated to brand the head of their trucks with Mottainai Recycling Ltd Colours. They will also be given a unique barcode which they will be in front of their trucks. This barcode identifies their vehicles and shows they can work in Oyo State. “Mottainai is a technology-driven company, and so we will be employing technology to solve a lot of the problems that have bedevilled waste management in Oyo State,” Mr Adewuyi told us. “For example, we have some people who think they can disregard His Excellency’s directive that PSPs should stop work, even if they choose to do so and some people choose to work with them, they will not be allowed to dump their refuse at the dumpsites without the barcode.” Mr Adewuyi also said that residents and commercial operators within the state had been warned not to conduct any waste management transactions in cash. Presently, there are three modes of payment. People can pay through POS, bank transfer or direct deposit at the bank. They will get their bills in advance, allowing them time to pay before the due date.
Under the new architecture, each registered business/residence will have a unique identification number. All their payments and other correspondence regarding waste management and recycling will be tied to that number. “All we have to do is scan the barcode, and we will have access to all their information in our database. It will be almost impossible for anyone, whether a waste generator, creator or PSP, to avoid paying for waste management,” Mr Adewuyi said.
However, as the CEO of Mottainai recycling explained, the new architecture will wear a human face. For example, there is a long-term plan to empower PSPs that do not have capacity but who have reapplied to work with the new architecture with compactors. Also, the new tariff on waste management will be staggered to take into consideration people of different socio-economic standings. Under the new arrangement, some households will be paying as little as N500 to have their waste evacuated, whereas the poorest of the poor will not pay anything at all.
“The plan is to carry everyone along,” Mr Adewuyi says. “Some people have been going around saying that the consultants have come to take over. We are not here to take over but rather to restore sanity to the system. We are working very closely with His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde, and the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources and other Ministries, Departments and Agencies that are active stakeholders in the waste management subsector.”
When asked about the immediate solutions to the waste management issues in Oyo State, Mr Adewuyi said Mottainai Recycling will be embarking on a one-week emergency Intervention in Ibadan tagged Operation Clean Up Ibadan. Starting August 1 -August 7, 2022, Mottainai Recycling Ltd will embark on a door-to-door waste evacuation in all the 11 Local Government Areas in Ibadan.
Residents and commercial operators Oluyole, Ibadan South West, Ibadan South East, Ibadan North East, Ibadan North, Ibadan North West, Ona Ara, Ido, Egbeda, Akinyele, and Lagelu have been put on notice of the visit by Mottainai trucks.
According to the waste managers, refuse should be properly bagged or binned and placed in front of the building for easy evacuation. Gated communities are advised to make adequate arrangements to give the Mottainai trucks access to their communities for proper waste evacuation.
The schedule for the one-week emergency intervention shows that Oluyole, Ibadan South West, Ibadan South East, Ibadan North East, Ibadan North will be served between August 1-4, 2022. Ibadan North West, Ona Ara, Ido, Egbeda, Akinyele, Lagelu will be visited on August 5-7, 2022.
“The big problem we have here is that residents have resorted to disposing waste on the medians because they are not getting proper service. So, we have to go round and sensitise them about the new structure and introduce ourselves by picking up their waste.”
A major part of the new waste management architecture is the re-introduction of Environmental Health Officers. 330 Environmental Health Officers have been recently inducted, and they will be working with Mottainai Recycling to enforce environmental health laws. “We are quite excited about having the Environmental Health Officers back on board,” Mr Adewuyi said. “One of the major problems that have persisted in this sector is sensitisation and enforcement. With the EHOs we will be sensitising people on how a clean environment will benefit them and also let them know the consequences should they choose to disobey environmental health laws. We will basically be applying the carrot and stick approach.”
With all that the Oyo State Government has put in place, it promises to indeed be a new dawn in waste management in Oyo State, where all stakeholders will be involved. And as Mr Adewuyi informed us, in the next few weeks, there will be continuous stakeholder engagements to communicate the various aspects of the new waste management architecture to the good people of Oyo State.
“Everybody will be involved. It’s all part of the Omituntun that His Excellency promised.”
