Tobias Sylvester
In a bid to control noise pollution, the Lagos State Government has threatened to close down any mosque, church, night clubs, bars and others, which constitute an environmental nuisance.
This was made known in a statement by the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tunji Bello, on Tuesday, November 12, 2019.
Mr. Bello said the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) had been mandated to apply the full weight of the law in the matter.
He said the action became imperative because his office had been inundated with complaints and petitions from many residents and residents’ associations about the obnoxious noise levels of many leisure centres and religious homes.
The commissioner said LASEPA officials would go on surveillance visits regularly and any centre found to have exceeded the allowed level of sound output would be shut down and sanctions applied.
Bello lamented that his office had also discovered many leisure centres and religious homes that were sanctioned, after being reopened by the government, usually go back to the same noise pollution for which they were earlier axed.
The commissioner added that the discovery prompted the involvement of residents’ associations.
According to him, any leisure centres and religious homes that are sealed over noise pollution will no longer be reopened without a clearance letter from the residents’ association of the area where they do business.
He advised the affected leisure centres to procure soundproof equipment which would lessen the decibel of sound that goes out when they are in business.
Bello emphasized that the state government would not allow any business concern to put the wellbeing of residents at peril simply because it wants to operate.
