Amid unbridled illegal dredging and land reclamation activities on its waterways, Lagos State government said it has concluded plans to hold a maiden stakeholders summit to raise awareness on imminent dangers in the nefarious act.
The state’s commissioner for waterfront infrastructure development, Hon. Dayo Bush Alebiosu who disclosed this to LEADERSHIP Sunday in Lagos, said the state government was actively addressing the issue of illegal land reclamation in its waterways with new regulations and enforcement measures.
According to him, some of the measures include the forfeiture of unlawfully reclaimed land and the imposition of hefty fines on violators.
Dwelling on the forthcoming summit, Alebiosu said, “We are talking to people who understand Lagos very well, we are considering bringing experts to come and talk with us, they have a lot of data, they have an in-depth understanding of our waters, probably even better than we do.
‘’They have data; they have reports and many things like that, so some of the things that they have discovered would be important for them not just to come and speak about it, but for all stakeholders to hear and understand the dangers they are going into. Of course, as we know, there is no illegal reclamation going on in any community that the community is not aware of it, where did they come from?
‘’The importance of addressing coastal erosion is one of the things that will come up at the summit. Sometimes, when you do not see or experience something first hand, there is always that tendency not to understand it in depth and when you do not understand it in depth, you will probably not apply it within a particular time of what you ought to do. So, we are looking at bringing all stakeholders together, known and unknown stakeholders, people who participate in the area of dredging.
‘’We’re identifying all the issues that put our lagoons under pressure. We know people who do dump waste; chemical waste, all sorts of bio-waste. We have people who are on top of our waters, who regularly pollute it by toileting on them.’’
Alebiosu pointed out that, ‘’There were cases where tilapia fish were dissected in the Makoko area, and they saw fresh human faeces inside it. This is because the fish were feeding on the faeces, some will throw it away, some will clean the faeces because they can’t afford to discard it to buy a new one.
‘’So there are so many things, what do you think will happen when they consume things like that? And some people are not even aware of the cleaning techniques of fish, that is why some fish when you eat it, it will taste bitter; It means it hasn’t been cleaned very well so, imagine if it had faeces in it, there are people with such experiences, we are putting everything on ground, It is going to be an open door where we discuss everything, we address it, take it up and we push it beyond that.’’
