The Federal Government has been called upon to come out with a policy framework to address and control the activities of scavengers in the country.
It is believed that despite their negative reputation, scavengers are finding ways to increase revenue, and though they face many challenges their contribution to the economy of the country has been massive.
However people have continued to advocate for the regulation of their activities in order to eliminate criminalities and maximize their potentials.
Speaking at the weekend at the stakeholders workshop organized by the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) in conjunction with INCLUDE knowledge platform in Netherland tagged, “Formalizing the Scavenger Economy for sustainable Development in Nigeria”, the Director General of IPCR, Dr. Joseph Ochogwu said: “Whether we like it or not, scavengers are very important to the waste management and our ecosystem, as a matter of fact they are the frontline people.
“As humans we produce waste on a daily basis and this are the people that help us to pick them up from the waste areas to the garbage dump, they are everywhere and it’s so unfortunate to note that they suffer stigmatization, some see them as security threats while others tag them as thief, which is not supposed to be, they are neglected by society which is why we decided to undertake this research”.
He lamented that the activities of scavengers are sub-optimal, but noted that they can have a great impact on Nigerian economy with respect to resource conservation, creation of job opportunities, and reduction of the magnitude of waste disposal problems.
He decried that poor waste management and extreme poverty are twin challenges that contribute immensely to the increase in number of people doing this job even though there are challenges many of them earned their living from their and take good care of their family.
He said the workshop was timely and that scavengers needed to be given maximum priority in view of economic challenges we are facing presently in Nigeria and most especially about diversifying our economy.
He said: “We appreciate partners from Netherlands for providing fundings to enable IPCR carry out the research both in Abuja and Lagos. This research took us to one of the largest dump site in Lagos and you need to see how people live in this side. We also looked at the level of vulnerability of the people there both adults and children and this calls for policy concerns on why we need to zoom in and provide policies through research on this group of people because they are very essential to our lives. A society that takes care of the marginalized is set for progress, development and security. We need to pay a lot of concerns to the waste pickers their access to healthcare, inclusion in terms of finances and other basic amenities.There is also need to ensure that they have the National Identity card to enable them have access to facilities like the bank, etc”
Also speaking at the workshop, Associate Research Professor of law, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Abuja, Dr. Izuoma Adindu said: “Circular Economy principles are making waves globally. Countries are no longer living on linear economy they are moving towards circular economic which means reuse, recycle, and nothing is considered useless everything is considered important can be used to contribute to the economy by way of integrating or strimming this marginalized people who in some countries have gone ahead to have a law and enactment on secular economy, like countries in the Asia Pacific region, that we have almost the same in terms of vulnerability to climate change, have gone ahead to have laws enacted for the sole purpose. In Australia they have a Circular Economy Act that they used to include this people, knowing that they are front liners in the circular economy principle.
“And of course, they’re very important because they help in the mitigation agenda of the climate policies. So we have the Climate Change Act, and that climate change act not even allude to these people. If you look at it, like I said, majority of laws or policies don’t have any provisions for them.“
