Residents across Lagos pay monthly waste-service charges, yet refuse piles up in streets, markets and drainage channels. In several parts of the city, collectors have missed pickups despite payment, leaving households and businesses to contend with overflowing waste as the system meant to remove it falters.
Garbage has been reported in Mushin, Ebute Metta, Agege, Egbeda, Idimu, Ojuelegba, Mile 2, Orile, Apapa, Okokomaiko, Ajah, parts of Lekki, Lawanson, Ikeja, Bariga, Surulere, Agegunle, Boundary, Ojo, Ikorodu, Festac Town, Satellite Town, Ikotun, Oshodi, Iyana-Iba, Alaba, Isolo and Abule Egba. The refuse decomposes, gives off offensive odours and spills onto roads. Blocked drainage channels obstruct motorists, pedestrians and businesses. Residents face potential health risks.
A service residents pay for
Lagos’ waste system splits responsibility between the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and accredited Private Sector Participants (PSPs). LAWMA oversees policy and supervision, while private operators collect household and commercial waste in assigned districts and local government areas. Operators must collect residential refuse at least once a week. Residents and property owners pay monthly service charges.
Residents pay the bill, but several areas don't receive the promised collection. PSP operators cite rising diesel costs, vehicle maintenance and long distances to disposal sites. State authorities have acknowledged operational bottlenecks, underperforming operators and truck shortages. The system relies on assigned contractors, state oversight and charges paid by residents; when collections fail, waste stays outside people’s homes and businesses.
Lagos generates between 13,000 and 15,000 tonnes of municipal waste daily, according to Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources Tokunbo Wahab. The article says Wahab and LAWMA aren't monitoring PSP operators properly, and many operators’ evacuation trucks are in poor condition and prone to breakdowns. Those failures impede collection.
Emergency clearances, familiar machinery
The current crisis recalls the 2015–2019 waste crisis, when major roads, markets and drainage channels became dumping grounds amid infrastructure and operational bottlenecks. In 2017, then Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration brought in Visionscape to modernise waste collection and evacuation. The arrangement became caught up in Lagos’ waste-management politics: Visionscape struggled to meet expectations, refuse remained piled up, and LAWMA personnel were unhappy after their role was significantly reduced. Residents faced an increasingly filthy city.
The state government has acknowledged the seriousness of current conditions and sought to clear refuse black spots. It also brought back monthly sanitation exercises, but the article says conditions appeared unchanged. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu directed an immediate scale-up of waste evacuation, saying LAWMA, the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) and the Ministry of Environment were working around the clock.
“We have deployed extra trucks and personnel to clear the backlogs across all affected neighbourhoods. You should already see progress on the streets, and we will not stop until our city is completely clean again,” Sanwo-Olu said. He urged residents to dispose of waste properly and not dump it in drainage channels or on roads. His appeal puts part of the cleanup on residents even as the state and its contractors remain responsible for the collection system.
Wahab acknowledged that residents hadn't received satisfactory collection services, while disputing the suggestion that the government response was limited to emergency evacuation. He said delays at disposal facilities could slow truck turnaround, disrupt schedules and leave refuse piled up in neighbourhoods.
Restructuring and accountability
Wahab said the state was pursuing modern transfer loading stations, material recovery facilities, recycling, composting and the Epe waste-to-energy project. It was also strengthening contractor monitoring through property enumeration, geocoded service locations, GPS tracking, weighbridge measurements, collection records and recovery data. Operators found underperforming face sanctions or termination, he said.
Wahab’s response came after criticism from Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the 2027 governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). The campaign and the government’s exchange put electoral politics beside the immediate question of whether residents receive the service they pay for. The account calls for transparent monitoring, adequate financing, contracts tied to measurable performance and accountability for operators. It also says reasonable charges linked to visible improvements could help sustain the system, while private investment and external partnerships could support larger projects.
Accumulated waste can breed rats, flies, cockroaches and mosquitoes that contribute to malaria, cholera and typhoid. Sharp objects and contaminated materials can injure people or cause infections. Rain can carry refuse into water sources, and open burning can release pollutants that aggravate respiratory conditions. The article’s central demand is routine, predictable and accountable collection—not another emergency response after refuse has already taken over the streets.