By Precious Owolabi, Ado-Ekiti

The Ekiti State Government will, on Monday, May 26, 2025, commence the implementation of the Waste Wise Cities Tool (WaCT) in the state.

A statement from the office of the Technical Adviser to the Governor on electronic Geographic Information System (eGIS) and Land Management, Mr. Olusanmi Akintobi, made available to newsmen in Ado-Ekiti, explained that the programme, which will last for eight days, involves the analysis of waste at the Ilokun and Emirin dump sites and the measurement of waste deposited into the recovery sites at Oke Ori Omi, Oke Bola, and Adehun — all in Ado-Ekiti.

The statement also disclosed that the programme will capture the packing and sorting of waste generated daily in residential buildings by conducting waste sampling from 90 selected households — 30 each from low-, middle-, and high-income areas. It will also measure per capita waste generation and composition over eight days to account for daily and weekly variations.

According to the statement, the programme is expected to improve efforts toward establishing a municipal solid waste management strategy and identifying infrastructure investment opportunities for a sustainable waste management system. This includes green job creation and mitigation of climate change risks, as well as making Ado-Ekiti attractive to private sector investment in waste management.

It assured that professionals, competent, and well-trained personnel from both the Waste Management Authority and the Ministry of Environment are on ground to handle the project.

The statement noted that Ado-Ekiti was one of the cities that joined the Africa Clean Cities Platform in November 2023 and was selected for the Waste Wise Cities Tool (WaCT) application based on the criteria from the Expressions of Interest launched in 2024 by the ACCP Secretariat and hosted by the Urban Basic Services Section of UN-Habitat.

It will be recalled that the Ekiti State Government, in collaboration with UN-Habitat, had earlier organised a training on the Waste Wise Cities Tool (WaCT) last year, during which high-level state officials and over 50 participants were taken through the process of conducting the WaCT survey and the waste assessment quartering method.