Emmanuel Thomas
Nigeria, February 24, 2016 – The Lagos State Government has announced that it will hold the monthly environmental sanitation exercise on Saturday, February 27, 2016.
In a statement, Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare said there will be restriction of human and vehicular movement across Lagos between the hours of 7.00am-10.00am on Saturday.
He called on Lagosians to actively participate in the exercise by coming out to clean their homes and the immediate environment.
Adejare explained that apart from this state organized event, daily cleaning of the environment should be an everyday affair stressing that “environment is everything and everything is environment”.
He also reminded Lagosians that the global climatic weather condition has become so unpredictable and that Lagosians should properly dispose their waste through LAWMA and authorized PSP operators, noting that dumping of waste into canals impedes the flow of storm water.
He recalled that last year, several states in Nigeria experienced serious flood, but that with the help of God and concerted effort of the state government, Lagos did not record such incident, a feat he said was achieved through effective collaboration of the people. He warned residents who still patronize cart pushers to desist adding that the scope of the PSP Operators has been widened for effectively coverage of the state.
He explained that because of expected early rains this year, the Drainage Maintenance Dept and Emergency Flood Abatement Department have commenced massive cleaning and dredging of drains and canals across the state in order to reduce to the barest minimum incidence of flooding in the state.
He warned Interstate bus operators, transport owners and road workers to comply with the restriction of vehicular movement between the hours of 7.00am-10.00am adding that any vehicle caught violating this order will be dealt with, while passengers in such vehicles will also be prosecuted according to the State Environmental Sanitation Laws.
He assured that the law enforcement agencies including Nigerian Police and officials from LAWMA, LASTMA and KAI have been fully mobilized to enforce the law.
