Lagos: Traders call for better waste management in markets

Traders in some markets in Lagos at the weekend, urged waste management officials to improve on waste collection in the 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 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 delayed in doing their job.Mr Promise Okon, a trader in the market, told NAN that the waste managers now pick 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 had 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.
Click here to read full news..