The Lagos State Waterways Authority has partnered with the Lagos State Waste Management Authority Marine Unit to address pollution and other environmental hazards of waterways activities.
The General Manager of LASWA, Oluwadamilola Emmanuel, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos. He revealed that the partnership was particularly on waste management to improve safety on waterways.
Emmanuel said under the partnership, LAWMA officials would clean up LASWA centres, sort and pick up plastic and other recyclable wastes in the waterways and take them to recycle factories.
“This is done to ensure that boats, jetties and waterways are rid of wastes that constitute nuisance to the system,” he said.
He also disclosed that apart from the collaboration with LAWMA, pollution of waterways would also be addressed with LASWA’s Omi-Eko project aimed at halting the use of fossil fuel engines.
“The Omi-Eko project is strictly going to run on electric ferries. This is to reduce the pollution that comes from engines.
“To this effect, we will embark on collaborations with relevant agencies in a bid to keep the waterways clean.”
Also in regards to making the waterways safer, Emmanuel revealed that the agency is also collaborating with the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA)
“Also, the state Ministry of Waterfront and Infrastructure Development is upgrading jetties and terminals so that we can operationalise and maintain these jetties,” he said.