One way or another, the livability and sustainability of an environment translates into the wealth and well being of people in both urban and rural communities which is why Gravitas Investments, a new city development firm, recently encouraged and even enabled people in a Lagos community to be conscious and sensitive to their environment.
The developer which, together with Lagos State government, is developing Gracefield Island in Lekki, was at Ajiran, a community in Eti-Osa area of Lagos to sensitise the people on the need for a clean, safe and livable environment which is a major consideration even in their own new city development.
Gracefield Island is an ambitious mixed use city development sitting on about 100 hectares of land reclaimed from the Lagos Lagoon. It offers best-in-class opportunities for living, working and leisure.
The environment sensitization programme at Ajiran, which attracted many residents of the community, officials of the Lagos State Ministry of the Environment, other environment enthusiasts, among others, charged the residents to “be the solution (to environmental problems)…reduce waste”.
Officials of the company explained to BusinessDay that the programme was part of their community development initiatives and also part of the commemoration of this year’s World Environment Day (WED) held a week earlier with the theme, ‘Beat Air Pollution’.
“As part of our community development initiatives, we have done other things in our communities, but this year, because of rising concerns about the environment, we decided to do this sensitisation which we planned as part of the World Environment Day,” Jumoke Owoyeye, the company’s Business Development officer, explained to BusinessDay in an interview on the sideline of the Tuesday event.
Ozoemezina Nwafor, the company’s Urban Planner, explained to the Ajiran community the need to have a decent environment free from waste and the resultant air pollution which he said was hazardous.
Nwafor noted that the biggest changes and effects human beings could experience from air pollution were not only real damage to the environment, but also bad changes in the quality of life and severe issues to their health.
To reduce these, he advised the people not to burn household waste, explaining that, “by burning plastic, you release horrible toxic chemicals into the environment some of which will be sucked up by our own nose. Recycle your trash instead.”
The company went to the sensitization with LasGidisRecyclers—a neighbourhood waste recycling firm that specializes in PEP plastic and satchet water collection and recycles same into other useful products.
“We are building a new waste collection model; we have identified some streets in Lekki, VI and Ikoyi from where we collect PEP plastic bottles. We recycle these collected wastes in Awoyaya in Ibeju Lekki. We hope to crush them and recycle them into T-shirts, fibres and ropes,” Idu Okwuosa, LasgidisRecyclers’ managing partner, told BusinessDay in an interview.
Nwafor told the community that proper waste disposal was critical because, according to him, certain types of wastes could be hazardous and could contaminate the environment if not handled properly.
He added that improper waste disposal might severely endanger health and immediate environment which was why Gravitas provided plastic waste bins running into hundreds that were distributed to the natives who participated in the sensitization programme.
The community complained that the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) did not come to their area frequently to collect waste, adding that even when they did, bad roads did not allow them to go near individual houses.
They therefore requested that very big waste bins should be provided for them where household wastes could be dropped for easy collection by the waste management authority. Owoyeye assured that they would take their complaints to government and follow them up to ensure that they were addressed.
CHUKA UROKO
