The Lagos State University, LASU through its Centre for Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development, CESSD has expressed readiness of the institution to work with Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, LASEPA, to start research activities for environmental sustainability and sociological development.
The General Manager, LASEPA, Dr Dolapo Fasawe stated that the collaboration of the two institutions will boost the activities of the agency in combating the menace of Global Climate Change and proactively support the State’s environmental policies.
She expressed this view while receiving the management and top officials of the institution including the Vice Chancellor, Prof Olanrewaju Fagbohun and the Director of Centre for Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development, LASU, Prof. Adeola Animashaun during a courtesy visit to LASEPA office at Ikeja on Friday.
The General Manager who commended the initiative of the University in partnering with the agency described it as a welcome development to the state and the environment, adding that LASEPA was already working with World Bank to provide Air monitoring stations to generate data for policy making and global warming indices of the state.
She explained how the agency was able to encourage and persuade some industries in the state to switch to gas energy generation rather than the normal diesel and petrol as a way of protecting the environment from further degradation.
According to her, LASEPA partnership with Vehicle Inspection Service, VIS, yielded positive result towards the reduction of carbon emission as 6,500 vehicles are presently running on natural gas, while plans are on the way to increase the number.
“We have also been championing the reduction of plastic waste by banning single use plastic bags in our premise, with plans of extending it to other sectors. This move has reduced the solid waste the agency generates and indirectly saves cost,”Fasawe said.
In his response, the Vice-Chancellor of Lagos State University, LASU, Prof Olanrewaju Fagbohun commended LASEPA for recognising the need to factorise social economy in policy making by coming up with alternative to single use plastics/bags and stated further that plans will be made to encourage students of LASU to adopt the use of biodegradable bags rather than single use plastics/bags.
Adding that the University will impact the agency in terms of capacity building activities, that would enable the agency stay up to date with environmental trends globally.
“We want to work with LASEPA and come up with a compliance toolkit that makes it easy to monitor the compliance level of industries. With this toolkit, private companies can audit themselves, with the benchmark set by the agency. Its a win-win situation, if we make money in a healthy environment, but a time bomb if it is made in an unstable and unhealthy environment.
“Therefore, based on technological advances, the University plans to create an App that measures emission level of a vehicle per movement, works with vehicular registration and holistically prompt the owner of the vehicle to go and service the vehicle as at when dues,” Faghoun revealed.
