THE Rotary Club of Falomo, in conjunction with Eco Restoration Foundation, is embarking on a massive sensitisation clean-up exercise to sanitise the beachfront in Lagos State for a healthy environment.

At a recent coastal clean-up of the Elegushi beachfront and environs, the President of the Rotary Club of Falomo, Sandra Ovie, said the exercise aims to sustain the ecosystem and attract tourists.

Members of the club came out in large numbers to remove debris from the beachfront, which Ovie promised would be a continuum extending to other areas of the coastal tourist sites.

The club also donated two 750-litre galvanised bins for recyclable waste and three 240-litre heavy-duty industrial debris collectors to residents of the Elegushi beachfront.

Ovie said: “All the debris thrown into the water by fun seekers makes the environment untidy. So, we decided as a board to clean up the beach and sustain the ecosystem.

“In the course of doing this, we were also educated on the repercussions of throwing debris into the ocean, which comes back to our system through the fish we eat, which has hazardous implications on our health.

“We have provided waste bins for proper disposal. We are partnering with the Eco Restoration Foundation, and it is a continuum. So far, we have spent about N2m to buy these bins and other materials for this project.”

Representative of the Eco Restoration Foundation, Dr Stephane Waniko, said the ocean, which occupies 71 per cent of the earth’s surface, must be sustained in Nigeria to promote the frontiers of the nation’s economy.

Waniko said: “UNESCO gave me the responsibility of promoting ocean literacy in Nigeria. To be responsible for the environment and mitigate climate change issues, we developed this initiative in collaboration with the Rotary Club Falomo to promote environmental sustainability through this sanitation exercise on the beach.

“We would keep up with the pace of awareness sensitization to the inhabitants on securing the environment by proper waste disposal in line with the vision of a cleaner Lagos. Waste can generate another means of income. When properly segregated, it can be used for biogas or recycling. Waste can be a way of empowering people.”

On his part, Dr Raphael Shelle of the Physical and Chemical Oceanography Department at the Nigerian Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research, Lagos, NIOMR, said: “No less than 73 per cent of our protein food is from the ocean. So, it will get back to us within a matter of time because the aquatic organisms consume the bulk of the debris we throw into the ocean, which constitutes problems for them.”

Project Director of the Club, Rotarian Joshua Akpan, charged other organizations to do similar things on other beach fronts to protect ‘our’ ecosystem and maintain the waterfronts for attractions.

“If we do this, our beaches will be cleaner and attract more tourists,” he said.