Courtesy Call On DG NESREA By Waste Management Society Of Nigeria

Members of the Waste Management Society of Nigeria (WAMASON) led by their President, Professor Oladele Osibanjo, paid a courtesy call on the Director-General/CEO of NESREA at his office in Abuja on Thursday, 2nd June, 2016. The visit was to cement collaboration and partnership with NESREA in order to confront the challenges of waste management in Nigeria.

Speaking, Professor Oladele Osibanjo said that WAMASON promotes professionalism in the waste management industry and emphasized that doing so was important because of its links to public health and wealth creation, and he also harped on its impact on climate change.

While admitting that the huge waste dumps in Nigeria require the application of high level of environmental and management techniques, he called for the enactment of a legislation that would be enforced by NESREA. “Waste management is serious business, but no structure is in place for effective control”, he declared. He informed that the Society had gone ahead to draft a bill that would be presented for consideration by the National Assembly. He also expressed the desire that the activities waste managers to be streamlined, stating that WAMASON was ready to provide capacity strengthening and certification for operators.

Responding, Dr Lawrence Chidi Anukam welcomed collaboration with WAMASON, also admitting that waste management was a problem in Nigeria. He said that he was glad that that Society had come on board and that NESREA would cooperate with them in the areas of technical and advisory support.

The Director-General briefed the officials on progress being made with the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Programme and said they were going to be ideal partners in the development of that concept.

Dr Anukam expressed his desire to see the removal of the ceiling limiting management of waste to the third tier of Government. “It would be nice for every state to have at least one engineered landfill site”, he disclosed.