Street Trading Contributes To Environmental Pollution, Says Lagos

The Lagos State Government has said street trading, hawking on drainages and pedestrian bridges contribute to environmental pollution in the state.
The Corps Marshal of the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps, Gbemisola Akinpelu (retd.), said this in a statement on Tuesday.
She was quoted to have spoken during a presentation at the Department of Sociology, University of Lagos, Akoka.

“Lagos State with a population of over 20 million, due to high influx of people from far and wide, is faced with a perennial problem of trading activities on walkways, road verges, medians, setbacks, drainages, pedestrian bridges and even on the main road, which affect free-flow of human and vehicular movement, thereby compounding the environmental sanitation issue in the state,” she said.
Akinpelu further explained that the efforts of LAGESC to curb indiscriminate street trading have been unsuccessful.

“The agency has been up and doing at ensuring that sanity prevailed in the areas where street trading and hawking have become a daily occurrence in the state. Despite the agency’s efforts through stakeholders’ meetings, advocacy and sensitisation, voluntary compliance has been extremely difficult due to the traditional ways of conducting market activities amongst traders such as displaying and hawking goods on the roadsides despite the designated market places, while the agency’s enforcement protocol has also resulted in arrests and prosecution of recalcitrant traders by the courts,” she said.

The Head of Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, UNILAG, Dr Adebowale Ayobade, said, “I advocate the regulation of street trading through the creation of specific hours of the day and locations where traders can legitimately carry out their activities without constituting an environmental nuisance to the state.”
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