Fasawe Adedolapo Ayokunle is the chief executive officer of Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA). Speaking in an interview with NGOZI OKPALAKUNNE, Ayokunle who is a passionate clinical, public health physician and environmentalist, stressed the need for environment to be protected. She also spoke on the dangers of air and water pollutions as well as the achievements the agency has recorded so far.
As the first female Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency(LASEPA), how has the journey been so far?
I started working with LASEPA in 2019. I became General Manager, coming from Public Health Care. I realised that environment and health are intertwined. So, I decided to explore environment whilst still being a Doctor. The mandate we have here as an agency we were not fulfilling 10 percent of it. You know that people resist change. Initially, it was a battle. But the fact is that, if you treat your staff like your own children the art of war will not be there.
So, I used that approach for capacity building and we re-orientate our thinking as public servants. People have a perception about us that is not right.
The first thing I did was in the area of human capital- building of staff and teams. I did new organograms, I interviewed people to find their areas of strength. I moved them all around because to succeed in anything you are doing, money is important, but you need human resource that believe in you as a leader and that is why LASEPA is successful today because they believe in me as their leader.
Can you state some of the achievements the agency has recorded under your leadership?
We have four zonal offices, I had to create another, even now we have 11 and it is still not enough to cover Lagos because we are in the business of environmental protection. We look at the land mass of Lagos water, land, air land, it is all our business here. Even what goes into your drainage is our business.
After creating those zones, we brought agency closer to the people. Many people did not know that noise is a pollutant and it is not good for the health.
As a public health physician, we started the Noiseless Lagos campaign. You don’t need so much money to advocate for a noiseless Lagos. My people and I started a big advocacy projects in the media including television, stating the laws of noise pollution. It is against the law to advertise or propagate your goods with loudspeakers in any public place in Lagos.
After the advocacy, we started enforcement. Before enforcement, we did alternate dispute resolution. Enforcement means we seal the premises. You pay a fine and we both jointly agree on compliance. The offender signs an MoU.
Technically, we get reports through calls and that is when someone called, complaining that his neighbours music is killing him.
You cannot play music that is above 53 decibels. You can enjoy music in your home, but once it gets to a certain decibel you are committing an offence. Noiseless Lagos has been a very successful campaign.
At least 75 percent of big entertainment centers and religious houses have sound proofed their building because our slogan is: “less noise more sense”.
Sound is different from noise. When sound becomes annoying, irritating, confusing, and vibrating that is what is called noise and noise is bad for the health. Noise can cause abortion, high blood pressure, all sorts of ailments. We are not just doing it for keeping Lagos quiet, we are looking at the health impact assessment. The impact of noise on human being. We had a project in Ojota Motor Park and I’m happy that as a result of that project, many conductors does not use amplifier to call passengers again.
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We have a doctor, an oncologist following us on the campaign, half of the conductors are 40 percent deaf and they don’t even know because they can have sensory deafness and it is machine that will dictate that. That comes from repeated exposure to noise. I have a girl who got deaf totally. She is an event planner. Her eardrums pulped. She has to go to America to do eardrum transplant. So, when we talk about noise pollution people look at it as nothing. Noise is a nuisance; it’s not good for our health and for our environment
What are other things that LASEPA is involved in?
LASEPA protects the environment. We also monitor industries to ensure that their trade end points (electrical and electronic waste) are disposed in an environmentally sustainable manner.
After manufacturing, some firms will dump whatever is remaining in the middle of Atlantic Ocean or just pour it into water. It poisons the fish. When we eat poisonous fish, it exposes one to the risk of cancer. Some people who does not smoke can be diagnosed of cancer just because they eat poisonous fish from the water.
That is what I’m enjoying here, bringing health into this business and it is real. So, we decided to build a treatment plant here in this premises. We ensure our water, our land, air is not polluted because any of it affect us.
World Bank reports 2020 stated that we had 17,800 premature deaths in Lagos due to air pollution. The saddest part of it, is that almost 70 percent are children with pneumonia bronchitis, asthma among others.
Protecting the environment is protecting ourselves and this environment is something they have given us to hold in trust for generation to come. This generation is the first set. I would say the battle is almost lost with global warming and climate change if this generation does not pass it to the next generation, we are sitting on a time bomb. ‘’Mother Nature is Mother Nature’’ it would fight us back.
We apply to the World Bank for a grant to put air quality machines in Lagos state. During Covid-19 when we were all locked up inside. In Lagos State, 60 percent of air pollutions in Lagos state are due to traffic, emissions from cars. That’s why this agency is collecting raw data to show that these things are real it’s not so far from you.
Each time an okada starts, the carbon it exhumes behind is almost 1000 molecules. We not only enforce people to do the right thing, we teach people how to protect themselves and protect the environment. It is a different concept when you mix health and environment and that is what I’m trying to do here. That way, people can start to relate to the concept of global warming and climate change.
We set up an e- waste unit and we have successfully accredited people who will dispose used electrical materials. There is mercury in the fridge and mercury causes cancer. When you just dump it, somebody will inhale and 10 years later, the person may develop cancer.
For e-waste, electrical electronic goods. We have a system that monitors them, from end user to disposal, we ensure we monitor it so that they don’t release substances into the air. Somebody waste is another person raw material. So, we are doing that with electrical and electronic waste which we are not doing before. That is an achievement we are proud of.
Proudly, we have the first e-library in Lagos State, we use it to review reports and plagiarism is a thing of the past because we have anti-plagiarism software. You must do an environmental Impact assessment for industries, down streams, petrol stations, and manufacturers, construction, aviation, energy sector, all of that we can monitor what they are doing through here. People can be caught real time online and we can take action.
Another achievement is air quality control machines which cost a million dollar each. World Bank was able to give us six. Lagos needs about a 100. For these six we put in strategic areas, the six is a drop in the ocean. but it is something.
Shortly after your resumption as the CEO of LASEPA, Covid-19 set in; how does that affect you?
During the pandemic, we had a lot to do and what we did really was advocacy. We went around, talking to people, the media on environment. It was found in medical research that the poorer your environment, the higher your risk of morbidity and mortality because the poorer your air quality, the higher your risk of catching the virus. If you are breathing in dirty air, it is easy for corona virus to settle there. ‘’Mother nature’’ fought us back during Covid, we had loose skies, one of the best air qualities in the world, but must we have a pandemic for that to happen? We have to keep thinking. For suggestions and ideas LASEPA is open.
Any advice for women?
We need more women in the business of the environment because women can influence their children. Women can influence their husband in environmental protection. Everything that happens regarding pollution is the women, kitchen, nylon bag, women can teach their children about the environment, and we need more women. Women have been documented to be a veritable tool in advocating or in change of mindset. A woman can change the way her house is, or the way they throw away paper or the way, and the way they throw away plastic bottles.
