According to the Lagos State Government, danger lurks in the state’s coastal communities of Apapa, Ojo, Ikorodu, Ibeju Lekki, and Badagry local governments areas “if human attitude to the environment is not appropriately checked.”
Speaking during an advocacy meeting at Lagos State University, LASU, in Ojo, Lagos, Dr. Omobolaji Gaji, Permanent Secretary, Office of Environmental Services, State Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, said this.
The program was a component of an initiative to raise awareness of the value of conserving coastal communities and a healthy environment.
The risk may be avoided, according to Gaji, who was represented by the Director of Sanitation Services at the Office of Environmental Services, Dr. Hassan Sanuth. This job belongs to everyone, regardless of position or rank in society.
Therefore, the state administration emphasized the need for people of coastal areas to adjust their attitudes toward the environment.
Abstaining from all types of environmental contamination and encroachments in the state’s coastal villages are only two examples of this kind of attitude shift, according to Gaji.
In addition to ongoing pollution and different types of invasion, Gaji observed that human activities by inhabitants throughout coastal areas in the state pose a danger to the ecosystems.
He emphasized the following actions, saying that everyone must be motivated to make a proactive commitment to enhancing coastal communities: the careless discharge of industrial and human garbage on wetlands and river banks.
Gaji said, “Communities in Ojo, Ikorodu, Ibeju Lekki, Badagry, Apapa are at great risks and sensitive to these prevailing environmental issues as danger looms if human attitude to the environment is not appropriately checked.
“We all need to take a recourse in ensuring compliance to effective and efficient waste management, waste water storage and disposal, sanitary tank construction and management.”
He said that due to their contribution to the food supply chain, coastal towns in the recent past had greatly benefited mankind.
According to Gaji, coastal areas are significant landscape elements that perform a variety of functions that are beneficial to people, fish, and wildlife. These functions and services include maintaining surface water flow during dry periods, protecting and improving water quality, and providing food.
The majority of the septic tanks in those communities were found to be poorly constructed; as a result, water from the septic tanks is being discharged directly into the drainage channels and roads, contaminating the water bodies and the aquifer, according to the director of the Environmental Education Unit, Mrs. Monsurat Banire, who gave an overview of the surveillance carried out in the communities of Tedi, Ijede, and Ariyo, all in the Ojo Local Government.
She said that there is no better moment than the present to increase awareness among inhabitants of the Ojo Local Government and other coastal regions of the state about the significance of a shift in mindset and the growth of a deep respect and regard for the environment.
The Guest lecturer, Director, Environmental Assessment in the Office of Environmental Services, Dr Olasunkanmi Sojinu, said ,”the Earth is the only planet that supports human existence hence the need to ensure that it is not destroyed.”
Sojinu, mentioned tree felling, open defecation, bush burning, indiscriminate refuse disposal as a few of human activities that are affecting the earth while urging residents to desist from those activities and ensure commitment to sustainable environment.