Lagos declares war on illegal dredging, land reclamation

By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has declared full warfare connected amerciable dredging, unregulated soil mining, and reckless onshore reclamation crossed the state’s waterfronts, informing that perpetrators volition look the afloat value of the law.

Speaking astatine the First Lagos State Waterfront Summit, themed “Pressure connected the Lagoon: The Lagos Experience”, Sanwo-Olu said the activities of amerciable operators endanger some the ecological and economical aboriginal of the state.

“Those who nett from amerciable dredging and biology demolition are jeopardizing the aboriginal of generations to come. Lagos volition nary longer tolerate it,” the politician said, citing caller visits to communities similar Ibeshe, Ilashe, Inagbe, and Idotun, wherever erosion and flooding person displaced residents.

He revealed plans to fortify the Ministry of Waterfront Infrastructure Development, empower section communities, and enforce stricter regulations to safeguard the state’s coastline, which has already mislaid implicit 80 percent of its shorelines successful 50 years.

Delivering a keynote, erstwhile Lagos Environment Commissioner, Dr. Muiz Banire, SAN, described the Lagos Lagoon arsenic “the psyche of Lagos,” calling for urgent enactment to support it. He faulted the Federal Government’s mentation of a Supreme Court ruling connected waterfront ownership and insisted that existent federalism, with assets control, was indispensable for Lagos’ survival.

Banire urged the constitution of a dedicated Lagos Lagoon Authority to unify fragmented mandates, harmonize enforcement, and guarantee accountability, informing that overlapping national and authorities agencies had turned the lagoon into a dumping ground.

Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Dayo Bush-Alebiosu, added that unchecked urbanization, pollution, amerciable dredging, and clime alteration were depleting food stocks and threatening livelihoods. “If thing is done, much communities and opportunities volition beryllium lost,” helium cautioned.

The acme brought unneurotic authorities officials, academics, backstage assemblage players, and waterfront communities, each calling for decisive enactment to support Lagos’ fragile coastal ecosystem.

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