Funke Busari, Lagos
The Lagos State government is showing more resolve to tackle environmental challenges in the State.
To this end the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, LASEPA on Thursday is seeking more positivity from its accredited environmental consultants.
LASEPA is urging them to be more professional in their reports so as to effectively tackle environmental challenges confronting the state or be shown the way out.
The General Manager of the agency, Dr. Dolapo Fasawe threw this challenge during a mandatory virtual MasterClass for the agency accredited environmental consultants.
According to her, the theme of the event, “The ideal and best practices of environmental consulting in the 21st Century”, is apt, bearing in mind the relevance of the consultants as core stakeholders that can either make or mar the agency’s quest of realizing her mandate of protecting and managing our already fragile ecosystem’.
She said it is very important for the accredited consultants to work professionally, prepare and submit environmental reports that are genuine, truthful with authentic data, that reflects and confirms true use of the environment by their clients.
The LASEPA boss appealed to the consulatants to perform their duties with utmost patriotism and desist from all act of plagiarism.
She said that consultant who fails to comply with outlined guidelines, would not only be discredited, but also penalized for unprofessional conducts. Furthermore the agencies have adopted measures such as, installation of plagiarism software to detect copy cats, review of reports electronically, acceptance of only analysts from certified laboratories, submission of report not exceeding two months from date of preparation and to also include Initial Environmental Examination, IEE, in Environmental assessment reports for gas skid plants, fuel retail stations and hotels.
Expressing further that, it’s unacceptable for accredited consultant to allow unaccredited consultant to use their registered name or platform for environmental consultancy, provision of three consultants for client preferences and issuance of certificate for Environmental Assessment, EA, reports.
On his part, a renowned environmentalist and University of Lagos Don, Professor Babajide Alo said that accredited environmental consultant must protect the interest of all parties without bias, noting that the decisions/ reports by the expert are taken based on informed regulations, legal context, knowledge and technology, which must be align with new ordinances, laws, and regulations.
Also contributing Mrs. Oyenike Shobowale, said transparency is essential in writing a credible environmental report. She added that the report must be produced in a balanced and transparent fashion.
According to her, the report should include a summary of how each of the steps listed above was carried out and the outcome from each.
