Benjamin Omoike l Wednesday, May 27, 2020
LAGOS, Nigeria – Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tunji Bello, has stated that the present administration in Lagos State has reinvigorated the environmental sector in the last one year, restoring the mandate of its agencies and making the state cleaner.
He made this assertion during the 2020 Ministerial Press Briefing as part of activities to commemorate the first year in office of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the Governor of Lagos State, held at the JJT Park, Alausa, in Ikeja.
He added that the Ministry, has also, in the last one year, improved the drainage network in the state to facilitate free flow of water through its proper channels.
Bello added that all the drainage channels in the state are being touched in a continuous cleaning and maintaining exercise.
He said while some of the drainage channels have been cleaned up, they are being revisited on a regular basis to ensure that they don’t return to the terrible state in which they were some five or more years ago.
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He expressed committment to fostering a clean, healthy and sustainable environment for the well-being of the citizenry through the application of best practices in the environmental management.
He said that one of the first steps taken was the rejuvenation of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority LAWMA which is now at the forefront of waste collection.
He stated that the State is currently witnessing a cleaner environment as a result of the strategies put in place to stabilise waste collection activities on public highways such as Ikeja, Agege Alimosho, Iba, Otto Awori and Badagry expressway, among others.
The Commissioner reveals that Government through LAWMA has been monitoring the activities of accredited Private Sector Participants (PSP), with a view to access their level of service delivery and address all challenges promptly adding that the PSP operators are being empowered and encouraged to acquire new equipments.
He reiterated that in order to promote extraction of resources and use of recycling to conserve natural resources government introduced the Blue Box waste sorting programme.
“It encouraged sorting of wastes at source and encouraging people to generate revenue from their waste.”
He explained the State Government has decided to rebrand and reposition the Lagos Environmental sanitation Corps (LAGESC), now to be Known as Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI)
“The operatives will now adorn the green uniform which symbolises the environment unlike the previous peach coloured uniform and will stick to their primary role of ensuring that people obey all sanitation laws,” Bello explained.
He revealed that the organisation has also expanded its operational division to Twenty-One (21) from Ten for efficiency.
Realising that the state requires attention for sustainable development in the face of incessant flood, Tunji Bello reported that the Drainage maintenance team has embarked on the dredging, and cleaning of all primary and secondary drainage channels in the state.
“We have been engaging in regular desilting of all drainage channels through its Emergency Flood Abatement Gangs and has also procured tipping trucks that swiftly carts away the silts generated from the cleaned drains.”
According to the Commissioner, from January till date, the Emergency Flood Abatement Gang (EFAG) has carried out routine maintenance cleaning and emergency de-flooding interventions on 47 Nos. Secondary Collector Drains, about 13 critical channels have been worked on so far which includes dredging and maintenance, while an approval has been gotten for the maintenance cleaning of 192 secondary collectors spread throughout the 20 Local Government Areas of the State.”
Reporting that the drainage clearing is a continuous project, he however cautioned the citizens against poor hygiene attitudes.
