Wahab: sustainable environment achievable through collective effort

Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources Tokunbo Wahab has restated the need for all local government areas to support the state government to address environmental challenges through continuous enforcement and sustained advocacy.

Wahab spoke after an inspection tour to Savage/Elegbata Drainage channel around the Olowogbowo/Apongbon axis in Lagos Island. He said the government is determined to find lasting solutions to flooding in Lagos Island and environs.

According to the commissioner, the team had to visit the Savage/Elegbata Drainage channel to open the drainage outfall towards discharging into the Lagoon effectively. The outfall was blocked because of an ongoing road construction in the area, he noted.

Wahab also lamented that human detrimental activities had damaged the roads and other infrastructure in the area. He berated the local governments for being complicit ‘because they have allowed and condoned various unsanitary activities of the residents’.

According to him, the people were steep in destructive habits, but ‘the government will not rest; it would instead continue to ramp up the enforcement and advocacy approach’.

The commissioner also urged everyone engaged in illegal activities, such as mechanic workshops, street trading, abattoirs, unapproved parking lot, among others, under the Apongbon Bridge and environs to vacate immediately as enforcement agents have been given the go- ahead to begin work.

According to him, government enforcement officials would be stationed in the axis to monitor the level of compliance, make arrests and prosecute if the need arises. He implored residents to always take ownership of all infrastructure and the environment by preventing indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the drainage channels/roads, street trading, and others because ‘it is the responsibility of all residents to maintain the environment to ensure its sustainability’.

Special Adviser on to the governor on Environment, Engr. Olakunle Rotimi-Akodu, described the Apongbon situation as ‘unfortunate and the people careless with infrastructure put in place to benefit the community’.

Rotimi-Akodu challenged property owners not to compromise their buildings for stipends/handouts because the ‘government will not be deterred until it achieves a community that is environmentally sustainable’.

Others in the team were Permanent Secretary (Office of Environmental Services) Dr. Gaji Omobolaji; Permanent Secretary (Office of Drainage Services) Engr. Mahamood Adegbite; Managing Director LAWMA, Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin, and some management staff from the ministry.

The team visited the Savage/Elegbata Drainage Channel which cut across Cole Street, Savage Lane, George Street, Abu Lane, Apongbon underbridge and Olowogbowo.