•Reveals 74 industries sanctioned for environmental pollution
The General Manager of the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), Babatunde Ajayi, yesterday, said that about 25 per cent of diseases reported in hospitals in the state are caused by environmental pollution.

Ajayi, who spoke during a statewide and sensitisation seminar on the impacts of untreated effluent and air pollution on the environment for stakeholders, themed “Treat your industrial waste responsibly and protect our environment for a sustainable future,” stated that environmental pollution hasa huge negative effect on health, adding that health cannot be jettisoned from the environment.

According to him, it is also the reason the state government, through LASEPA, does not take the issue of compliance lightly, revealing that not less than 74 firms have been sanctioned for environmental pollution violations this year.

He added that the agency was more interested in complaints than sanctions, which is why it regularly conducted awareness and sensitisation exercises for stakeholders.

He, however, said that companies, no matter what, need to comply with waste disposal regulations and environmental standards.

He promised that LASEPA would continuously engage with stakeholders to educate them for a better understanding of the requirements.

Besides, he implored residents within the community to report when they see any organisation engaging in discharging large volumes of effluent or untreated waste into the environment.

Also, a former General Manager of LASEPA, Antonio Ayodele, who delivered a lecture on ‘Sustainable approach to effluent and air pollutants management in Lagos,’ disclosed that over 700 industries discharge effluent into the environment daily in the state, noting that while some do it in the day, others do it at night, sometimes through buried pipes.

On his part, the representative of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment, Oladipupo Adeyemi, thanked LASEPA for organising the seminar, as information mobilisation is key to compliance. He added that a good environment is good health.