The Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Cleaning Practitioners Association of Nigeria (CPAN) to combat proliferation of dangerous chemicals used in cleaning the environment.
Speaking at the signing of the MoU in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, General Manager, LASEPA, Dr. Dolapo Fasawe said with the MoU, CPAN has been accredited to partner with government in cleaning and protecting the environment from chemicals, as well as well partner the government in checkmating the activities of quacks in the cleaning industry.
“The truth is that at times, when are trying to do go, we are causing harm, some of these chemicals that we used to clean our environment are chemicals that cause global warming, climate change if not used properly, if not constituted in a scientifically agreeable way.
“We have had incidences where people go and fumigate homes and children fall ill and animals start to die. There is pest control, there is rodent control, so this association, in dealing with them, I have come to understand that they are credible in protecting the environment,” she said.
“LASEPA has decided to accurately accredit this group of people that called Cleaning Practitioners Association of Nigeria (CPAN) and before you are accredited with us, we check your chemicals, we make sure you’re practising, best available practices. We’ll make sure for example, you’re not putting snipers into homes and foods in the process of trying to kill rodents.
“Before we accredit you, you go through training. You show us certificates and it is not just a one-time accreditation. You are accredited and re-accredited every year and we looked around for a group that can help us with this. The truth is that governance is a collective responsibility. Government cannot do it. We need associations like yours, we need associations out there to work with us to ensure that this environment is better in a sustainable manner for generations to come,” Fasawe added.
The General Manager said in partnering with the association, cleaning operators would be provided avenue to have direct access to the government.
She said the MoU would help to sanitise the system and drive away quacks so that only accredited professionals would be allowed to handle chemicals used in cleaning the environment.
“The quacks caused more damage than good, both to the built environment, both to human beings and also to the ecosystem. That is one advantage of being a member of CPAN, from this MOU we are signing, CPAN is an arm of LASEPA. Other associations will come up and if we review your activities, and we monitor you and evaluate you, we will extend our arm of partnership as CPAN now has done,” she said.
According to her, “We will work through CPAN to train and to accurately enforce, for example, if we go through to public infrastructure where they’re meant to control pests every quarter, such as restaurants, eateries and hotels, you show us your consultants; it will come to a time that if you’re not accredited with LASEPA through any of this partnerships, that centre will be seen as dirty, it will be seen as not clean and even poisonous and dangerous.”
National President, CPAN, Tunde Ayeye, said the body is the umbrella organization of all professional janitorial, commercial and industrial cleaning firms across Nigeria, including all hygiene and allied service providers.
He commended LASEPA for supporting the association in its mission in the last three years, as it had worked with relevant department of the agency to develop the whole value chain that would enable the association raise the standard of the sector in a manner that promote sustainability of the environment.
Ayeye said the collaboration between CPAN and LASEPA would ensure that only safe and environmentally-friendly chemicals were used in the delivery of commercial cleaning activities across Lagos State, saying this would be achieved through a series of carefully thought activities involving training and capacity building.