Fashola: Coastline Erosion, Sand Mining Threat to Lagos.
Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola
By Gboyega Akinsanmi
Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola, Tuesday decried the spate of illegal sand mining on the Badagry waterways, noting that the activities could aggravate flood disasters in the area and expose the entire state to grave situation.
Fashola made the comment after the inspection of Ajido and other areas which he undertook alongside some members of the State Executive Council (SEC), warning that government “will enact law that will inflict very serious punishment for those who want to persist in the act.”
Among members of the state executive council that accompanied him included Commissioners for Environment, Mr Tunji Bello, Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Prince Adesegun Oniru, Mineral Resources and Energy, Mr Taofik Tijani and Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Toyin Ayinde among others, he added that the state would adopt a multi agency collaboration to put a stop “to illegal mining in the area,” saying: “The issue calls for community action as those responsible for the illegal sand mining are not aliens but members of the community from Ajido to Badagry.” He said the law enforcement agencies “will act. We will have multi-disciplinary and multi- agency collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure and the Lagos State Water Ways Authority and we will put an end to this.
“And here we have leaders and all sorts of representatives, we have traditional rulers. So it is a call for community action because the people who are doing this very illegal business, this very dangerous business are not aliens, they are members of the community here from Ajido to Badagry.
“One expects that the leaders of those communities will rise up and stop this. This is an extremely very dangerous business. Nobody should continue in this kind of business and we are determined to put a stop to it”, the governor emphasized.
Fashola described the waterways stretching from Badagry all the way to Epe as God’s gift to Lagos with a Peninsular in between, a lagoon at the back and the Atlantic in front, adding that it is coastline that many people wish for.
He stated that on the eastern side towards Ibeju-Lekki, one can see ravages of erosion and vessels that have come aground ashore which the State Government is still trying to deal with. On my way here this morning alone, I counted 15 ships that have lost anchor, damaging our coastline.
“Now as if that is not bad enough, we have come here now and we see that this place is a calmer area and not really yet subject to that devastation of nature, climate change and global warming, but the people themselves are the ones now devastating it, digging with all those little canoes and they have dug in some places almost four to five metres to the Atlantic. Now that is a danger waiting to happen”, he said.
THISDAY
