Monthly sanitation exercise has come to stay – Lagos govt declares

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Lagos Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab,

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.Seeks public collaboration

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By Olasunkanmi Akoni

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Lagos State Government has vowed to intensify its advocacy to ensure residents embrace voluntary cleanliness of their environment, saying the monthly environmental sanitation exercise has come to stay in a bid to ensure a cleaner city.

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The state government stated this, weekend, during the second edition of the reintroduced monthly Environmental sanitation which took place across the state.

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While the wife of the Lagos State Governor, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu participated in the exercise at Alimosho Local Government Area, accompanied by the state’s Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, Special Adviser to the of Governor on the Environment, Rotimi Akodu, members of the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials, COWLSO, and other top government functionaries, the state’s Head of Service Mr. Bode Agoro led top government officials in the monitoring of the exercise in Apapa area of the state.

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Speaking in an interview with Journalists, Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, lauded the exercise, noting that Alimosho is one of the cleanest Local Government Areas in the state.

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According to him, ‘’We observed some local governments are very clean and this local government seems to be one of them.

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“Here we cleaned up some areas. What we have to do is to encourage the chairman of the local government Area and his team , the honourable member of the House to do much more, more engagement with the people with cleaning the environment.

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“You can see that they have cleaned the environment, they also have their own compactors to cart away the waste so the chairman is well done.

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‘’We also made it clear to Lagosians in respect of the holidays and the festivities, the commitment to the environment is unique. We had our sallah three days ago ,yesterday was a big festival for those that know but today we must clean our environment because we have a commitment that every last Saturday of the month is for lagos environmental sanitation day.’’

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On the recalcitrance of some commercial vehicles on the road and residents not coming out to participate in the monthly exercise, Wahab said, ‘’In fairness to commercial buses we didn’t find most of them on the road, just very few . We have already communicated to the right people.

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‘’On the citizens we have to keep communicating with them on why they have to take in this culture and spend two hours in a whole month to clean up their environment.

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“We are trying to create a culture and that is a dominant culture of a clean environment in Lagos state. After a while we will do the assessment also.’’

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Commenting on the restriction of movement, Wahab made it clear that, ‘’We are not imposing restrictions. We are fine with what I have seen.

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“We are taking the message of conviction. This is a thing that has been off for almost ten years., so bringing it back with a different demography, youth population, then we must find a way to communicate it.’’

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Corroborating the commissioner, the state’s Head of Service, Mr. Bode Agoro reiterated the importance of clean environment, saying , ‘’We are serious about cleaning our environment.

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“Nobody likes to live in a dirty environment. You don’t feel good, you don’t feel happy.And you fall sick, look at all sorts of illnesses, airborne diseases going right all over the place.

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“So the more we clean our environment, the healthier we’ll be. So it’s encouraging, it can be better for sure.’’

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Urging the residence to embrace voluntary compliance, Agoro said, ‘’It’s not about punishment. It’s about encouraging them to desist from such behavior.

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“Of course, there are sanctions. If you throw dirt on the road or stuff like that, there are sanctions. And there’s enforcement.

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‘’The Ministry of Environment will do the appropriate enforcement. If you violate the sanitation law, there must be sanctions.

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“But then we want a situation where we don’t need to enforce those sanctions. We want to create an environment where people automatically know that it is wrong to throw dirt on the road.’’

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