LAGOS, Africa's fifth-largest economy and an aspiring 'smart city,' carries a heavy responsibility to serve as a model in effective waste management and to match the world's best cities. This overdue goal remains critical.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu claimed that Lagos now stands shoulder to shoulder with the world's leading cities during the launch of the first-in-Africa electric boat race.

Yet, the troubling reality is that the megacity is sinking under mountains of uncleared waste that choke homes and streets, particularly in the suburbs.

Since 1999, waste management in Nigeria's economic nerve centre has been inconsistent. The advent of democracy brought freedoms that loosened the strict environmental sanitation policies imposed during military rule.

As a result, the first eight years of democracy under then-Governor Bola Tinubu, now President, failed to sustain sanitation excellence.

Babatunde Fashola, Tinubu's successor, transformed Lagos into a cleaner city. Unfortunately, this progress stalled when Akinwunmi Ambode abandoned the plan, causing Lagos to revert to its environmental challenges.

Under Sanwo-Olu, the sanitation record has been mixed. A recent report in Saturday Vanguard described Lagos residents "groaning as foul odour, clogged drainage, and heaps of refuse turn Nigeria's commercial hub into a city gasping for breath."

However, hope appears on the horizon. Two weeks ago, LAWMA, in collaboration with Proganics Limited, launched a new organic waste management initiative aimed at reducing methane emissions, increasing recycling, and supporting Lagos' climate goals. This development is promising.

The Sanwo-Olu administration seems to have finally engaged the lever of effective waste management, though past initiatives have faltered under political pressure.

LAWMA's Managing Director, Muyiwa Gbadegesin, revealed that nearly half of the 13,000 tonnes of waste generated daily in Lagos is organic, with about 6,500 tonnes posing serious environmental risks.

The waste authority plans to process this organic waste to cut methane emissions, a major global warming contributor, but also a potential clean energy source if properly harnessed.

Issuing a caution, Gbadegesin explained, "If we continue to take this organic waste straight to landfill, we will keep generating large quantities of greenhouse gases, specifically methane, which significantly contributes to global warming. Overall, waste accounts for about 20 per cent of the global temperature increase we are currently experiencing."

An innovative technology LAWMA and partners will apply is the introduction of green smart bins equipped with RFID tags for food and organic waste collection, enabling efficient pickup and transportation to processing plants.

Public awareness and education are crucial to this initiative's success. There should be widespread media jingles teaching residents to separate waste into categories: burnable (food waste, paper), non-burnable (metal, glass), and recyclables (cans, PET bottles, paper).

If properly implemented, LAWMA's ongoing innovations could deliver the long-desired, yet elusive, clean city Lagos has aimed for.

This sanitation initiative represents a positive step, but its success depends on political will, strategic planning, and robust implementation.

Lagos must demonstrate strong political commitment and ensure rigorous enforcement, which are central to effective waste management.

LAWMA and its partners should focus on converting waste into resources by channelling byproducts to agriculture, health, engineering, and environmental projects.

Lagos could learn from densely populated cities like Shanghai, Delhi, and Dhaka, where partnerships with the private sector support the provision of incinerators and landfills, cultural shifts in shopping and disposal habits, and stricter recycling laws forbidding street littering.

Tokyo offers a model with its strong 3R campaign -- reduce, reuse, and recycle -- driving its waste reduction and management efforts.

Beyond technology, Lagos needs a holistic approach to its waste challenges by establishing credible enforcement mechanisms for collective sanitation and hygiene responsibilities among citizens and businesses.

An effective surveillance unit is necessary to monitor compliance among manufacturers, food and beverage producers, hospitality companies, eateries, event centres, hotels, and residents.

Lagos' new waste management initiative