Dr. Dolapo Fasawe: Making Case for the Environment at COP26 through LASEPA

For the first female General Manager of Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency in its 25years history, Dr. Dolapo Fasawe, the responsibility of protecting and improving the environment of a megacity like Lagos State, although enormous, is one she is bent on doing with passion. Aside building a portfolio of sound environmental management programme and projects, Fasawe, who is a medical doctor, public health physician and environmental advocate all rolled into one, has taken up the gauntlet to ensure the development of sustainable environment in conjunction with other arms of government. In this interview with CHIEMELIE EZEOBI at ongoing 26th Conference of Parties, COP26, of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, in Glasgow, Scotland, Fasawe, who made a case for LASEPA, opined that the world can be better if collective action is taken to achieve Net-zero emissions

Man is a product of his environment, therefore, for the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), its responsibility as the environmental regulator for Lagos State in charge of assisting the public and private organisations, industries, businesses and non-governmental organisations to achieve compliance by providing environment friendly solutions to varied environmental challenges, is one task to be taken seriously.

With Dr. Dolapo Fasawe as the general manager, the agency has grown in leaps and bounds since she assumed office on August 19, 2019. She is saddled with the responsibility of implementing policies, aimed at protecting and improving the environment in Lagos.

Outing at COP26

As part of the enviable delegation from Lagos State headed by the Commissioner of Health, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, the general manager of LASEPA made a case for achieving Net- zero emissions as well as tackling global warming. She also touched on how the state was tackling plastic and air pollution, as well as need for climate financing.

Monitoring Air Quality

As one of the strategic directives of LASEPA, the GM noted that they are very much focused on monitoring the air quality and emission in the state.

She said: “We are focused on emissions because from the World Bank Air Monitoring Project we just concluded to know where the greatest pollution is coming from, surprisingly or unsurprisingly, the pollution is coming from traffic in Lagos.

“In industrialised nation, its usually by industries, manufacturing companies and air travels and not from cars. But here is pointing towards traffic because of the kind of fuel we use. In developed countries, the sulphate content has been reduced.

“However, the federal government and Lagos State government are working on that with DPR to find a way to reduce that. Also the governor recently make announcement of electronic car. But before we get there we need to consider what is realistic, affordable and available. So we are encouraging hybrid. Lagos State BRT buses will very soon be running on gas and that reduces carbon footprints by a significant margin in Lagos State.

“These interventions we are planning are measurable when we have air quality monitoring machines. It will tell the emissions and after the emissions. The truth is a lot of people do not understand what causes global warming or climate change.”

Going Green

A firm advocate of going Green, Dr. Fasawe was however of the opinion that much can be achieved by political will, financing and creating awareness.

She said: “We are very passionate about information, education and communication- I mean two way discussion and not just talking at people.

“We also believe that achieving Net-zero is possible . We cannot but emit because its part of life, but part of what our organisation and industries have to come up with is to look up a framework where what you emit is mopped up.

“For example, as simple as planting trees in Lagos State ensures that all centers are green. Why is because trees are natural carbon sinks- they help us mop up carbon dioxide from the air and you would notice that in terms of greenery and parks, this current administration is taking it very seriously. It’s not just for beauty but for carbon sinking.

“Another thing we are looking at is looking for partnership for finance in climate change- climate financing. And coming to COP26, we have been able to talk with the Commonwealth. The Lagos State Ministry of Environment has been able to do that. We have a project coming up in a couple of weeks. In a couple of weeks we will initiate where they would help us access finance into sustainable and bankable projects of the government.

“Coming here has been very rewarding and eye-opening opportunity. The whole world has gone green. We have conference of parties, Nigeria is a party and it’s about time we start thinking green.

With all said and discussed here, I believe if there is political will at the federal level, the same we have at the state level, we are matching slowly but steadily.”

Tackling Plastics

On tackling the challenge of plastics in Lagos, she said: “We have found out that in Lagos State, plastic pollution is a major problem and it blocks a lot of drains as plastics are not bio de-gradeable. Every single plastic made is still on the surface of the earth. They can be blocking drains or eaten by fishes which we in turn eat and the implications health-wise are now coming to the fore.

“We intend to mop up used plastics. We are having conversations with beverage and food alliance companies who produce plastic bottles. We cannot stop them but they have a responsibility by government to ensure that these plastics are properly disposed off and now we are enforcing recycling and enforcing putting money in a general treasury to deal with plastic pollution.

“We recently launched a program called Waste Exchange and this simply means we are putting a premium on amount of used plastic. What do we hope to achieve? We hope to mop up used plastics all the way from the drains. For instance, if plastics are being bought for N5, we intend to buy it for N10 or N15 and you’ll ask me how is this sustainable, most industries and companies pay environmental development charge, a levy, a tax that is compulsory to be paid to the coffers of Lagos State. We will now start to use tax payers money to work for the tax payer.

“This money will be used as a premium to attract plastics from every nook and cranny of Lagos State. You ask me how will it be sustainable, sustainability will come when our off-takers, they have to pay for what they are taking off us, they start to pay and the cost starts to grow while government subsidy starts to reduce. That way, it becomes a revolving fund.

Walking the Talk in Lagos

Stressing that the state government is walking the talk in Lagos, Dr. Fasawe added that “the current government of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu is about walking the talk. We have many policies and initiatives we are starting to implement right now. The implementation would be obvious for all to see, the impact would be measurable objectively and verifiably measured.

“For example, we have hubs now in Lagos where we encourage you to drop your plastics for incentives. Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) is currently working actively on sorting waste, biodegradable from degradable. We are decommissioning the land fill so we can have a mechanised landfill and we are thinking of incineration and these are all active measures towards the policies that have been made in the past.

“I’m also happy to announce here we have partnerships and global investors who are coming into Lagos to start to help us find a way to stop burning fossil fuels, gas pipelines, energy gas. Even the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is doing a lot in this regard and I beg to disagree that we are all policies. If you look deeply we are starting to walk the talk.”

Tackling Coastal Degradation

Shedding more light on what LASEPA is doing to protect the coastal areas, which are presently suffering from degradation, Dr. Fasawe said: “Lagos is a coastal city but if you look through our beaches, all the way from Bar Beach down, there’s a big problem with plastics, they’ve come ashore and the ecosystem is affected.

Explaining the cycle, she said plastics are dropped in the water and gets eaten by the fishes and man in turn eats the fishes, which then becomes carcinogenic since the plastics are not biodegradable.

This she said, was one of the many reasons why LASEPA decided to start an active campaign against plastic and pollution on the water coasts. One of the active plans they have was the recent meeting with Clean up Africa, an organisation with a big vessel called the ‘Interceptor’ that can mop up such plastics up to 2,000 metric tonnes of plastic from the rivers daily.

Stressing the political will of the state government, she said another plus was the jobs the constant mopping up of plastics would create in the respective coastal communities. She also opined that once the coastal waters are clean, the barracudas and other fishes, who had hitherto receeded into the deep sea because of pollution, would return.

Pakam-Household Recycling App

While passionately charging Nigerians to take personal responsibility of protecting the ecosystem, she disclosed the presence of an application on Android Playstore called Pakam, a household recycling app.

With this app, she noted that the agency goes round to pick up plastics, thus making it easy to dispose such waste.

While lamenting on the single use of nylon bags, she said “we go to supermarkets and get multiple nylon bags, we trash them, and go back and get more. All these are ending up in our landfills and they cannot be degraded. If we keep reusing them, you reduce the amount of plastics that we have to deal with.”

Advocacy to Conserve Water

Debunking the mindset that water is inexhaustible, she noted that the desertification in sub-Saharan Africa is moving closer to us, thus the need to save and conserve water for use and reuse.

Tackling Industrial Waste

Beyond the environmental damages caused at the domestic level, the GM further noted that industries must ensure their products are environmentally sustainable.

She also disclosed that already in Lagos, some banks have started practicing Green Banking, whereby they switch off their grid by 6pm daily and use only solar power.

She further hoped that the state would get to a stage whereby if ones business is not eco-friendly, they cannot get it done.

About Fasawe

According to Chief Public Affairs Officer, LASEPA, Bola Ajao, the general manager is the sixth to occupy that position having been deployed from the Ministry of Health where she was the Director, Special Projects.

According to her, Fasawe, an award-winning Public Health Physician, played a very pivotal role in engaging state governments and non-governmental organisations towards improved healthcare service delivery, innovations and initiatives across Nigeria.

Among her track record was her coordination of the State Emergency Public Health Information Strategy for the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in Lagos State in 2014.

Prior to her current appointment, Dr Fasawe served as the Coordinator of the Lagos State Special Health Programs where she pioneered and coordinated the Eko Free Health Mission, serving across all local governments in Lagos State. She was also the pioneer Desk Officer for Mental Health Programs, facilitating the promulgation of the Mental Health Bill for Lagos State, which was passed into law in January 2019.

As the General Manager of LASEPA, Dr Fasawe has driven a number of environmental and sustainability projects with success including the Noiseless Lagos Campaign and Ban of Single use Plastic Bags Campaign.

She is a member of several local and national committee including the National Committee on the Study on Available Sustainable Alternative Materials to Plastic and innovative Packaging and Recycling Technologies Sponsored by United Nations industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).

She is considered one of the foremost experts in Nigeria on exploring the nexus between public health and environment for building resilient urban cities for the 21st Century.

She received her MBBS Degree in Medicine and Surgery from Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-ife on Honours roll. She was also adjudged the House Officer of the year at the end of the housemanship at the same university.

Dr. Fasawe holds a Masters Degree in Public Health from the Lagos State University College of Medicine, in addition to Diplomas in International Health Consultancy from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Global Mental Health Management from Kings College London.