Lagos State’s long-standing three-hour environmental sanitation exercise which has been observed on the last Saturday of every month has been canceled. The State Government communicated its decision to do away with the monthly exercise through a statement issued by the Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, following Wednesday’s State Executive Council meeting.
Mr. Ayorinde suggested that the current environmental laws were an impediment to economic activities in the state. He said that the State Executive Council had decided that the monthly environmental sanitation exercise caused a city-wide lockdown for a length of time it considered too long. According to him, the exercise was stifling commercial activity in the state at a time in which the economic outlook demanded more enterprise from its residents. It was this constraint that the government was moving to eliminate.
The current environmental laws were an impediment to economic activities in the state.
The commissioner revealed that the Lagos State Government would tackle the state’s environmental challenges through “harmonized environmental laws” which would be introduced soon. The laws, he said, would “drive meaningful changes in areas of harmonized billing, waste management, modern landfill sites, noise pollution, and the introduction of an environmental trust fund and an environmental advisory council”.
Mr. Ayorinde assured that the state government was committed to maintaining a clean and secure environment for the state. He urged Lagosians to support the government’s efforts to reform the state’s environmental regulations, and comply with the necessary laws to order to keep the state clean.