The Lagos State Office of Sustainable Development Goals and Investment (OSDGI) has kicked off the 2020 community based clean-up campaign.

The state government is asking residents to take some pride in how their living environment looks.

Addressing the media during a sensitization campaign at Alimosho, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Sustainable Development Goals and Investment, Mrs. Solape Hammond described the initiative as an important platform for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Nigeria's most populous city and commercial capital.

She explained that the bold commitment to achieving the SDGs, which aspires to ensure healthy living by reducing threats to human life and the surrounding environment that sustains it, is cardinal in the State’s T.H.E. M.E.S developmental agenda.

According to her, the current negative trends of environmental abuse is undermining the progress towards 80 per cent of the assessed targets of the SDGs, which relates to poverty, hunger, health, sustainable consumption and production, water, cities, climate, oceans and land.

“The environment is a representation of its residents; we must desist from activities that debase it.

"Government on its part is intensifying societal awareness and policy action against the scourge of environmental pollution.

"It is the responsibility of every resident to support government’s approach to bequeath a safe and healthy environment for development," Hammond said.

She stated that the essence of the campaign is to unite and inspire Lagosians to cultivate the habit of caring for the environment, adding that developing robust, coherent and coordinated solutions that jointly address the menace of the environment, further makes the state resilient.

“Lagos residents need to note that protecting the environment is, without doubt, the best way to protect themselves against diseases and other harmful environmental hazards. We should be a community that cares for the environment and work together to make a difference”, she stated.

Highlighting the significance of sustaining a healthy ecosystem in an economically viable city like Lagos, the special adviser noted that a clean environment underpins the delivery of quality socio-economic services and provides reliable solutions to challenges related to urban well-being. 

She also said the COVID-19 pandemic is one more reason to keep the Lagos environment clean.

“The impact of this pandemic which is in no hurry to loosen a grip on mankind is increasingly drawing our attention to the need to protect the environment against abuse from human behaviour and mitigate the adverse impact of climate change.

"And our response to the pandemic should stem from the desire to protect nature”, she reiterated.

She added that the state government will collaborate with the local governments and other relevant bodies at the grassroots, local business communities, community leaders, market associations, youth organizations, religious institutions, among others, to achieve an environmentally sustainable Lagos.

The annual sanitary campaign is expected to be carried out in all 57 Local Government Areas and Local Council Development Areas of the state.