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The Lagos State government has established climate change clubs in 506 primary and secondary schools.

Bayo Akinwolere, the School Health Desk
Officer, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) disclosed
this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). Mr
Akinwolere said the clubs were established to raise awareness about the
adverse effects of climate change.

He said the project was carried out in
collaboration with the State Ministry of Environment, adding that it is
in line with the Greener Lagos Project of the state government.

Mr Akinwolere, who also is the
President, National Association of SUBEB School Health Officers Forum,
told NAN that the clubs were established in 2007.

“The purpose of establishing the clubs
in 506 schools in all the 20 Local Government Areas in the state, is to
bring about attitudinal change in the students regarding ozone
depletion substances. The initiative provides training for students as
well as the teachers, and the students are particularly happy to
sensitise their peers, parents and community members on the threat of
climate change,” he said. “They also sensitise their parents on the
dangers of inhaling fumes coming out of their aged cars, emission from
cooking stoves, fumes from generators, in order to change their
attitudes towards those acts.”

On sanitation, the desk officer said
the state Ministry of Environment, under the Lagos State School
Sanitation/Recycling Programme, had provided two waste bins to each
school in the state.

He said that the government had
provided 6,615 toilets comprising 1,458 pit latrines and 5,157 water
system variety, in primary schools. He added that 639 boreholes and
wells have also been provided to ensure that pupils drink water from
safe sources.

Mr Akinwolere put the total number of primary schools in Lagos State
at 985, while the number of teachers and pupils stand at 5,203 and
479,256.