Dr. Adejare (with mic) during the sanitation exercise
The Lagos State Government has charged residents living in flood-prone areas in the state to urgently relocate as heavier downpour are being anticipated in the next few days.
Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Samuel Adejare disclosed this on Saturday during the monthly sanitation exercise at Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
Adejare said heavier rainfall was being anticipated between 27 and 30 September and that people living in lowland and susceptible to flood should immediately relocate to avert disaster.
The commissioner was totally displeased with residents of Church Avenue in the council as they had converted the major canal in the area to dumpsite, with several residents erecting make-shift structures inside the canal.
“Our people need to have change of attitude in the way they handle the environment. People living in flood-prone areas should leave. At Church Avenue, the people have blocked the major canal with refuse.
“Some of them have even built houses on the drainage channel. We are the problem of ourselves. People should dispose their waste properly. People living in lowland areas should move. We did not give them permit to build in these areas,” he said.
According to Adejare, the blocked channel had been awarded to a contractor who would be coming to site on Monday while structures built on the channel would be demolished.
He also said the state government would empower the youths of the area to prevent people from dumping refuse on drainage channel and degrading the environment.
On the activities of cart pushers, the commissioner said before government took them off the street, it would ensure that adequate waste management system was put in place so that people did not feel the absence of the cart pushers.
Adejare stated that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode was passionate about reforming the waste management system in the state in order to make it more effective.
However, the commissioner ordered the closure of Ketu Car Park as the park was fully operational during the sanitation exercise.
He said the people were supposed to be at home cleaning their environment instead of being at the car park engaging in commercial activities, saying that government would no longer tolerate flagrant disobedient to its sanitation laws.
Over 40 people were arrested during the sanitation exercise at Ketu area for trading and loitering during the exercise. They were, however, released at the end of the exercise on the order of the commissioner.
Sole Administrator, Ikosi-Isheri LCDA, Aremo Abdul Adewale said the state government had given directives that markets to be built henceforth were those the people could afford in order to dissuade them from trading on the streets.
He added that the council would constitute a monitoring team to monitor the drainage and ensure that people did not erect structures in them.
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