LASEPA warns Lagos residents to prepare for extreme heat

Oloruntimilehin Ayomide
The Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), has warned Lagos residents to prepare for extreme heat in the coming days.
The first female General Manager of LASEPA, Adedolapo Fasawe also urged the residents of Lagos State to ensure that they have adequate ventilation in their homes and offices to subside the intensity of the prevailing heatwave.
However, Fasawe also advised Lagosians to adequately prepare for the heat intensity associated with the dry season which has serious public health implications.
“Lagos, being a highly urbanised city, had a higher risk of increased warming due to the heat. High rate of fire and flooding incidents are some of the effect of heat waves, and this ucderscores the need to desist from burning refuses, being a contributory factor to a high rate of heat waves,” she said
Fasawe also stated that ” Other factors that contribute to heat waves include the use of poorly-serviced generators and use of Ozone-depleting materials, all of which add to greenhouse gas emission.”
In 2002, a heat wave that hit Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria left more than 60 people dead . But even with their severity, extreme heat events do not get as much attention as other disasters possibly because everyone tends to forget about them after everything cools down to normal.