The Lagos State Government has arrested 2,097 people for violating the environmental laws of the state.

The government also warned residents to desist from indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the metropolis, as such act would not be tolerated.

Commissioner for the Environment, Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti who issued the warning at a ministerial press briefing in Alausa, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria on Wednesday said his ministry had served 209 industrial facilities non-compliance notice.

He said that operatives of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) arrested 2,097 environmental offenders, comprising illegal street traders, hawkers, highway pedestrian defaulters, environmental nuisance polluters and cart-pushers.

According to him, 136 offenders were engaged in communal service across the metropolis while others were arraigned for prosecution in line with the law at the Samuel Ilori Court, Ogba and Special Offences Mobile Court, Oshodi.
The commissioner stated that Lagos had strengthened its regulatory agencies to enforce compliance to standard and regulations, and curb all unsanitary behaviour by applying the required penalties, stating that monitoring, enforcement and compliance activities of the ministry and its agencies had improved in steering the state towards environmental sustainability.
“We have continued to monitor industrial facilities based on indicators such as Chemical Storage Permit, Environmental Audit Report, Petroleum Storage, Solid Waste Management and use of Personal Protective Equipment etc. Sixty-three percent of the eighty-one (81) industrial facilities monitored in the last one year were satisfactory while thirty-eight percent were unsatisfactory, thereby leading to the issuance of non-compliance notices to Two hundred and nine (209) facilities due to their recurring environmental issues,” he said.
Durosinmi-Etti said 76 percent of the 4,378 tenements and 597 private facilities monitored for compliance to wastewater policy of the Lagos State Government were served abatement notices while 60 percent of 1,185 complaints received on noise pollution were abated.


On the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, CLI, the commissioner said all hands were on deck to holistically address the challenges being experienced in waste management system, assuring that the issue would be addressed before the raining season.
He said the CLI was introduced last year to foster broad reforms in solid waste management, saying that the scheme remained the panacea for delivering efficient, effective and sustainable environment with its attendant benefits such as job creation, cleaner, safer and healthy environment.
The Commissioner said the government, in partnership with all stakeholders, was working hard to address the challenge, just as he assured that it would soon be a thing of the past.
“Very soon, Lagos will be very clean. We are working hard in partnership with all stakeholders to ensure we address the challenges. Both the government and the residents will jointly address the challenges and with Visionscape and the Private Sector Participation (PSP) operators working together, and the cooperation of the people, the challenges would soon be over.
“We know that our population is increasing as available statistics indicate that 85 people enter Lagos every hour and very few of them go back, and as more people come in, the waste generated in the State is also increasing but we are working to put the right infrastructure and equipment in place to address waste management.
“However, one thing I can assure the people is that we are working and in another one month before the raining season, it will be over. We know that the raining season is fast approaching and we are also preparing but I like to assure that soon, the challenges will be surmounted,” Durosinmi-Etti said.
He said 13,958 Community Sanitation Workers (CSW) have so far been employed to sweep inner streets in the 377 political wards in the State, with recruitment exercise still ongoing, adding that under the new arrangement, the sweepers would be directly supervised by the Ministry, while mechanized sweeping would be managed by three companies – Avatar, Wastercare and Corporate Solutions.
The commissioner said the PSP operators had now been charged with the responsibility of managing residential and general waste collection, while Visionscape now has the mandate of implementing waste management infrastructure development across the State, in addition to intervening in public waste collection to cover any service lapses that may occur.
On infrastructure, he said the retrofitting of Transfer Loading Stations in Agege, Oshodi and Lagos Island had attained over 80 per cent completion with plans for more, while Epe Landfill under construction had achieved remarkable progress with completion of the weigh-in bridge, adding that government in partnership with the private sector would soon commence another engineered hazardous landfill in Erikiti, Badagry.
Durosinmi-Etti said the State Government rapidly increased access to safe drinking water by adding 10million gallons per day to bring water supply to 220MGD within the last one year, adding that a total of 48 mini waterworks were rehabilitated in Ikeja, Surulere, Onikan, Epe, Ikorodu, Dolphin, Ajangbadi, Victoria Island, VI Annex, among others.
He said the 220MGD was in addition to Iju and Adiyan Phase I major waterworks with 45MGD and 70MGD capacity respectively, while work was ongoing on 70MGD Adiyan Water Treatment Plant Phase II, 4MGD Ishasi waterworks, 2MGD Imeke-Iworo waterworks and 2MGD Oke-Odo mini waterworks.

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