Lagos State has reached an agreement with a Dutch company to convert tonnes of solid garbage generated in the metropolis into useful energy.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu signed an agreement with a Dutch company, Harvest Waste Consortium, to build a high-efficiency Waste-to-Energy plant on the Epe landfill. The plant will use advanced technology to generate clean energy from municipal solid waste, commercial waste, and industrial waste.
According to him, the unique waste management system is intended to take approximately 40,000 homes off the national electricity grid, while also improving energy security and diversification by generating between 60 and 75 megawatts of baseload electricity per year.
The governor said the partnership with the Amsterdam, Netherlands-based firm was at the instance of the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, while the agreement was signed under the supervision of the Lagos State Office of the Public Private Partnership (PPP).
Sanwo-Olu said the inadequacies of the current waste disposal practices in the state led to the sealing of the partnership to bring about innovative alternatives towards reducing environmental pollution, improving air quality, and stemming degradation and contamination of water resources that posed threats to the life quality in the state.
Beyond the environmental benefits, the governor said the project, which has over 25 years operational lifespan, would stimulate economic activities around the initiative, while attracting major investments to the state and creating jobs.
He said: “We are thrilled to announce the construction and operation of a High Efficiency Waste-to-Energy plant in Lagos. This state-of-the-art facility will be built with the capacity to process 2,250 tonnes of waste daily, representing a monumental step forward in our waste management strategy.
The plant will not only provide a sustainable alternative to the current practice of waste dumping, it will also divert more than 95 per cent of our waste from landfill sites.”
Sanwo-Olu stated that the initiative would drastically lower the environmental footprint of Lagos garbage disposal systems, with the plant planned to capture approximately 550,000 metric tons of CO2 and other greenhouse gases produced daily from the dumpsite.
Ms. Leonie Vander Stijl, Deputy Consul General of the Netherlands Consulate, stated that the agreement gave the opportunity for international collaboration to address local difficulties, noting that Lagos became the first partner in Dutch waste management under the accord.
The envoy assured that the Dutch government is committed to the agreement’s success.
