Man-made indiscipline responsible for pollution — Official

The Permanent Secretary, Lagos Ministry of the Environment, Mrs Ronke Adeneye, says man-made indiscipline is largely responsible for the environmental pollution being experienced across the country.

Adeneye made the assertion in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the maiden Pollution Control Conference (POLCON) on Saturday in Lagos.

Adeneye described pollution as human degradation of the environment and an abuse of the earth’s carrying capacity.

“We are doing so much to the environment and so little is done to renew this environment that was handed down to us by our fathers.

“If we also want to hand it over to our children, we also have to ensure that we do something good with it,” she said.

Adeneye called for a change of attitude toward the environment for the citizenry to truly live healthy and wealthy.

“When we take a bottle of table water for instance and after we are through with it, we drop the container wherever we liked, it has a way of the ripple effect getting back at us.

“Same goes for chewing gum and other litters. When I chew this gum and do not look for a bin to drop it, it therefore means I do not take responsibility for what I do.

“I just feel someone else will do it and that is indiscipline.

“We need to have ethical responsibility, a change of mindset. We should think of what we call linear and from linear, to circular economy.

“These wastes that we think are wastes are not really wastes; They can be resourced in another form so we should always find ways of putting them across to where they could be beneficial to others,” she said.

She urged the public to make use of the blue box being distributed as well as the purple bags to separate wastes neatly for the purpose of clean recycling.

Adeneye said that government would continue with its advocacy for a healthier and cleaner environment so as to check the challenges posed by population explosion.

Miss Wunmi Ogunde, Convener of POLCON, said the conference was inspired by the desire to check menace of pollution which was partly responsible for some health challenges plaguing the citizenry, especially cancer.

“Pollution – land, water and air – have been on in our country for a long time.

“And like one of the participants pointed out, about 19,000 people die daily as a result of pollution-related illnesses.

“It is also no more a hidden fact that our country is gradually being rated as one of the most polluted in the world.

“That is why as young people, we must come together to begin to ask questions about the air, the noise and other forms of pollution, interact with other key stakeholders and together see how we can proffer solution to the menace for the benefit of future generations,’’, Ogunde said (NAN)