By Hauwa Ali
The Lagos State government in partnership with the United States (US) mission is set to tackle air pollution in the state as celebration of air quality awareness week continues.
The State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu disclosed this during a meeting with the US consulate in Alausa, Ikeja, on Tuesday.
The governor, represented by the commissioner for environment and water resources, Tunji Bello, praised the US team for coming at the right time and that the partnership was to tackle air pollution and raise air quality in the state.
“You have really come at the right time, now that the population has increased so much. Six years ago, Lagos population was about 20million. Today, we are talking of over 24million, how do we contain them? That itself contributes to air pollution. So we need a lot of collaboration.
“We are partnering with the US Consul in order to tackle the challenge of air pollution and they will work with us in raising the air quality of the state and make recommendations for us so that we will be able to deal with this problem effectively.
“Their assistance will be of utmost importance to us because this is Nigeria’s commercial capital and if this state can deal with air pollution successively, I am sure that Nigeria would have dealt with it 75 percent.” He said.
In his address, the US consul general, Bradon Hudspeth said that the collaboration was to provide some technical training.
“ We think collaborating through provision of air quality fellow and expert through US to provide some technical training.
“We have been working with the Ministry of Environment, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, and the Lagos State Government on raising the air quality throughout the state and Nigeria and we are working towards raising awareness on clean air and climate change and we are happy to celebrate Air Quality Week to be commemorated next week,” he said.
Dolapo Fasewa, general manager, Lagos State Environmental Board, noted the fact that air pollution is everywhere including in the US.
“Air pollution is everywhere, even in the US, but we can talk about how to deal with it, how to manage it using ICT and data analytics, disseminating the right information and signaling people on the quality of air.
“ Very soon,we would start to enforce that polluted vehicles and machineries are taken off the streets.” She said.
Air pollution has indeed been a major issue in Lagos State, as experts say Lagos generates 26mn tons of carbondioxide emissions.
Millions of people are at risk of deadly diseases, from cardiovascular to respiratory disorders, as lingering air pollution leaves the air quality in many parts of the country largely at unhealthy levels.
The state governor also said it will intensify campaigns on the danger of air pollution to human health and environment to bring awareness to everyone.