Paga founder and CEO Tayo Oviosu has criticised the level of littering in Lagos after spotting a heap of refuse dumped in a gutter along Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi, one of the city’s most affluent neighbourhoods.
Oviosu shared a picture of the refuse on X, describing the situation as evidence of a wider problem with Nigerians’ attitude towards waste disposal. “Look at what we have in the gutter on Bourdillon road in Ikoyi. This is just from a small section. The way Nigerians litter is quite bad,” he said.
Bourdillon Road runs through Ikoyi, a neighbourhood associated with some of Lagos’ wealthiest residents and most expensive real estate. The area is home to luxury apartment buildings, high-value residences, corporate offices and some of Nigeria’s most affluent individuals.
Bourdillon itself has become synonymous with high-end real estate, with some properties on and around the road commanding prices running into billions of naira yet the refuse-filled gutter captured by Oviosu shows that the neighbourhood is not insulated from a problem that affects virtually every part of Lagos.
Lagos’ Hydra-headed Waste Disposal Problem
Waste and indiscriminate dumping are often associated with densely populated parts of Lagos where inadequate collection services, overcrowding and limited waste infrastructure create significant sanitation challenges.The situation on Bourdillon presents a different picture as the area is one where many residents have the financial means to live in some of the city’s most expensive homes and employ private domestic and estate-management services.
This raises questions about whether Lagos’ waste crisis is solely an infrastructure problem or also a behavioural one as even if the city can provide adequate waste collection services, residents and businesses still have to ensure that the waste they generate gets into the appropriate collection system rather than gutters, roadsides and open spaces.
Lagos generates thousands of tonnes of solid waste every day, putting significant pressure on the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), private waste operators, transfer facilities and disposal sites.
In recent months, refuse accumulation in parts of Lagos has again raised concerns about the capacity of the state’s waste-management system with the goverment responding by providing additional trucks, intensified evacuation and cleaning exercises and measures aimed at improving the performance of waste operators.
But the volume of waste generated by Lagos means that government intervention alone cannot solve the problem which makes citizen participation and attitude change an important part of tackling the waste problem.
Until both sides of the problem are addressed, even the city’s most prestigious neighbourhoods will remain vulnerable to the same refuse crisis affecting the wider metropolis.
