Lagos – As part of the criteria for implementing the New Urban Agenda (NUA) in the state, Prof Leke Oduwaye, former Dean of Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of Lagos, has called on the Lagos State government to ensure an easy and seamless process of documentation of land related issues within the state.
Oduwaye made the declaration at the maiden edition of the Lagos Urban Dialogue, organized by the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development in collaboration with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), where he delivered a paper titled: Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda In Lagos State.
He disclosed that there is an established trajectory of consistent link between the economic development agenda of Lagos State and the global aspirations.
The Don advised that the state government should leverage on technology to promote a smart and green economy; infrastructure development as well as leverage on technology for their energy development.
“It is now apparent that sustainability cannot be achieved without the complimentary role of the physical environment.
“However there is now a convergence view on the need for synergy between social, economic and physical-environmental development in order to achieve sustainable development.”
The New Urban Agenda is a global effort geared towards expanding the infrastructures in urban centres in order to adequately meet the deficit in decent settlement for large population in cities, occasioned by the growing massive influx from the rural areas.
The Lagos Urban Dialogue was part of the preparatory frameworks to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially on Livability as the settlement for all, in the state and country alike.
Urbanisation is one of the 17-key development indicators recommended under the SDGs Obligation by the United Nations, as part of the global coordinated efforts to addressing the worsening crisis of poverty, underdevelopment, and the rural-urban migration frenzy.
And of more interest to a state like Lagos is the current report identifying it as the 6th fastest sinking cities in the world, with rising water level hovering between 3-7 inches.
To meet these challenges, especially in a metropolitan location like Lagos State, which is reputed to be home to some 21 million people, which constitutes over 10 per cent of the country’s total populations, with unconfirmed 86 more people trooping into the metropolis every hour. The experts frantically searched for a professional ‘magic wand’ to deliver on the obligations of the New Urban Agenda, without necessarily impairing the environment.
The maiden edition of Lagos Urban Dialogue, which is a gathering of town planning professionals, held at the Watercress Hotel, Ikeja with the theme: Sustainable Development Goals: An Essential to Achieving Lagos 21st Century Economy.
Source: independentng
