The Lagos State government has announced that all reclamation projects on wetlands, floodplains and the lagoons across the state without Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and drainage clearance should be suspended with immediate effect.
The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, announced this in a statement on Thursday.
He listed the most affected areas to be Parkview, Banana Island, Osborne and other parts of Ikoyi, Victoria Island Extension, Lekki, Ajah, Oworonshoki, Lagos Mainland, Ikorodu, Ojo and Badagry axis.
Mr Wahab said most of these reclamation projects were being executed without requisite EIA approvals and drainage clearance from the government, especially his ministry.
According to him, while reclamation may provide space for housing and infrastructure development, it also poses significant environmental and social risks, including increased vulnerability to flooding, coastal erosion, disruption of livelihood (especially fishing), loss of wetlands and biodiversity, constriction of the Lagoons and their capacity, impairment of water quality amongst others.
He noted that with the low-lying topography of the metropolis, and its fragile ecosystem, the state government could not afford to allow this indiscriminate reclamation of the Lagoons, Wetlands and floodplains to continue unabated.
He declared that all approved Reclamation Projects across the State must be submitted for proper documentation and monitoring, while all on-going and intending ones must be subjected to EIA process with issuance of approval letter and drainage clearance from the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources.
The Commissioner warned that failure to comply with this directive within the next seven days after this notice “shall leave the Ministry with no other option than to deploy appropriate machineries to decommission the reclaimed sites, including excavation and removal of fill, reconnecting of already blocked water channels on the Lagoon and the arrest and prosecution of anyone involved and or found on the site of the illegality.”