Environmental law: LASG tasks Ikorodu residents on cooperation

Residents of Ikorodu Local Government Area and its environs have been urged to cooperate with the government for the success of its new environmental agenda of ensuring a cleaner Lagos.

Speaking at a town hall meeting with Community Development Associations, Residents Associations and artisan groups in Ikorodu Local Government Secretariat on Tuesday, the Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare stated that the State Government required the support and cooperation of the people in order to realize its goal of a cleaner Lagos.

He said that the town hall meeting, which was organised to discuss the role of the people in the implementation of environmental sanitation plans in the state, was a reflection of the policy of the government of inclusion of the Akinwunmi Ambode Administration.

He further stressed that the interaction of the government with the people at the grassroots would afford them the opportunity of sharing matters of mutual concern regarding the environment.

 Dr. Adejare noted that in the determination to reposition the environment, the Governor of Lagos State had signed the environmental protection and management law for the good of all, while the people are expected to play their role by embracing the friendly environmental practice.

 The Commissioner emphasized that the bedrock of the state’s environmental agenda is the reform of solid waste management, also called the ‘Cleaner Lagos Initiative’.

 This initiative, according to him, was aimed at transforming the sector through Public Private Partnership (PPP) and to tackle the seemingly insurmountable challenges confronting us in the area of solid waste management.

 “No doubt, this initiative has come to change the face of waste management in Lagos State, as it offers benefits which include; creation of over 30,000 direct and indirect jobs, provision of sanitary landfills, efficient and regular collection of residential, commercial and industrial waste, marine waste management and proper sanitary disposal of hazardous waste as well as all-year-round drainage management for effective and efficient flood control and street sweeping and highway management”, he stated.

Furthermore, he disclosed that the state is set to provide over 300 new compactors and 9,000 waste bins for a start, adding that the compactors together with the waste bins to be supplied all over the state will be electronically tracked for easy monitoring.

The Environment Commissioner further stressed that Cart Pushers, Bike Riders, other unemployed youths, and the existing 4,500 sweepers would be engaged and transformed to Community Sanitation Workers (CSW) thus creating 27,500 new jobs.

In his words, “The Sanitation Workers, who will be uniformly kitted, insured and well equipped to optimally do the job, will manually sweep inner roads in the 377 wards of Lagos State, while mechanized sweeping of the highways will be carried out”.