The Lagos State Government has said that it would partner the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) in the fortification of the state’s ecosystem and forestall illegal dredging activities.
The state’s Commissioner for Waterfront and Infrastructure, Mr Adebowale Akinsanya, said this on Thursday at the stakeholder’s meeting tagged: ”Towards Sustainable Dredging Operations and Waterfront Development in Lagos State.”
Akinsanya condemned all the illegal dredging activities going on all over the state.
He said that the operators brought substandard and unfriendly environmental equipment to the state’s waterways without considering their consequences on the residents of the state.
According to him, the Lagos State Ministry of Waterfront and Infrastructures and NIWA will, henceforth, jointly regulate the activities of both mechanised and manual sand dredgers in the state.
” We have witnessed various unauthorised extension of properties into the lagoon without due consultation and total disregard to constituted authorities.
”This has led to flooding, erosion and has adversely affected the ecosystem. We need to do something urgently to save the coastline as Lagos State is 23 per cent water based.
”In many cases, reclamations are done without traffic analysis and total disregard to the master plan of the state for such areas.
”Each time our officers are sent out to monitor and correct these anomalies, they are met with stiff opposition and attacked by agents of these operators,” Akinsanya said.
The Commissioner disclosed that the Ministry had come up with a new approach toward getting an approval for dredging or renewal of existing approvals in the state.
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