Lagos Moves to Silence Churches, Mosques, Bars …Imposes N500k Penalty

Noisy churches, mosques and bars will now be sanctioned in Lagos, says the General Manager, Lagos State Environment Protection Agency (LASEPA), Mr Adebola Shabi.

According to Shabi in a PM News report today, the Lagos State Government has banned live bands playing at various beer parlours, restaurants and food joints in the state. Offenders will pay a fine of N500, 000.

The government also warned religious houses to sound proof their places of worship and minimise the effect of noise on neighbouring residents.

Shabi said that government’s action was triggered by increasing rate of petitions by residents, over disturbances from beer parlours, clubs and religious houses.

He urged those building new places of worship to get a sign off from the agency, and the old ones to sound proof the place.

“It must be acoustic,” he said. “Any complaint from the residents, henceforth, there will be sanction. They must obtain permit to do so and failure to obtain permit, the fine is N500, 000. We must discourage needless noise making at our residences.”

The LASEPA boss also frowned at other agents of environmental pollution, such as fuel stations that contaminate underground waters with petrochemical substance.

He warned petrol stations in the state to install monitoring well in their filling stations or face serious sanctions, as he disclosed that a recent research conducted by the agency on well water and boreholes across the state revealed that some underground water contain particles, substances and chemical reactions from petroleum substances which people drink regularly in the state.

He also disclosed ‎that the Olusosun dumpsite and another popular dump site along LASU-Igando road would be relocated, adding that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had indicated his plan to remove the dumpsites.

He said, “We have mandated all the petrol stations in Lagos State to install monitoring well and we will start the enforcement any moment from Easter holiday. This order was given in September last year. This is to check self regulation. This is to check leakage from their underground facilities.  A two-year research was also conducted in LASEPA.

“We picked over 100 water samples from Alimosho, being the most populous area in the state, down to Epe. You will be amazed that out of the water samples we took; only few are good for consumption. When we have these results, ours is to interpret with statistical model. After we examined the cause of the problem in the water, we discovered that the highest cause was petroleum product in the water, the other were microbial load due to the proximity of the well or boreholes to the soak away.

“Most people just call labourers to come and dig their boreholes without consideration for the flow of ground water.  The monitoring well must be done by a technically inclined person because they must look at the flow of the oil and the water. The same way when digging borehole, the flow of the water must be considered with flow of the soak away. All these will help in averting needless deaths and diseases.”