Lagos tasks officers on enforcement of Styrofoam ban, cleaner, sustainable environment

Lagos State government, yesterday, charged Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) across its 57 local councils and local council development areas to work in synergy with the Ministry of Environment.

This was with a view to achieving a clean, safe and sustainable environment.

Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, gave this charge during a meeting with the officers at Alausa Secretariat.

He said the combined efforts of the ministry and the officers would rid the state of all forms of environmental infractions.

He said the meeting became necessary to ramp up enforcement of the ban on Styrofoam food packs and trays across the state. According to him, pronouncement on the ban was made over three years ago but the law had never been enforced until now.

Wahab stressed that every government needs to put measures in place to mitigate adverse effects on the environment.

He said the ministry would rejig the operations of all EHOs across the local councils to enforce the law effectively, and that officers would be deployed to supermarkets, retailers and wholesalers to mop up empty Styrofoam food containers/trays in stock for onward transmission to the shredding site in Oshodi.

He decried the number of lives that have been lost through the effect of styrofoam food packs, adding that destruction of the ecosystem and aquatic lives as well as the menace brought upon the environment cannot be quantified.

He appealed to the health officers to collaborate with the ministry to ramp up enforcement, noting that KAI (Kick Against Indiscipline) officers will be employed soon and deployed to local councils to complement activities of the EHOs.