Don Calls For Coordinated Action To Ensure Sustainable Water Governance, Preservation of Blue Economy

A Professor of Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry ,Faculty of Science, Lagos State University. kafeelah Abosede Yusuf has stressed the need for coordinated action among academia, government, industry, and communities, in order to ensure sustainable water governance and preservation of blue economy through evidence-based policy, technological innovation, and institutional commitment

The don made the call while delivering the 123rd Inaugural Lecture of the university titled, ‎ “Preserving Blue to Stay Green: Probing the Mysteries of Water Chemistry ‎for Sustainability", under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, where she 

also emphasized the involvement of the community in protecting the water ecosystem 

"Public awareness programmes and citizen-science initiatives and stakeholder partnerships should be strengthened to ensure that environmental stewardship becomes a shared societal responsibility."

Promotion of a Circular Water Economy according to her , requires Wastewater treatment strategies which must incorporate nutrient recovery, safe reuse systems, and energy generation technologies. transforming waste streams into valuable resources

The inaugural lecturer in her recommendation, called for Strengthening of regulatory framework, saying "Environmental monitoring frameworks in Lagos and Nigeria should transition from periodic compliance checks to continuous, data-driven surveillance systems supported by modern analytical laboratories and real-time sensor technologies"

The Director, LASU Centre for Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development, advocated for investment in advanced research infrastructure, adding that "Universities and regulatory agencies must prioritize funding for high-resolution analytical instrumentation and emerging contaminant detection platforms. and interdisciplinary research facilities to address complex environmental challenges"

Policymakers, she maintained , should integrate artificial intelligence and machine-learning tools into water governance systems. to enable early-warning mechanisms and proactive pollution control.

"Urban development policies must incorporate hydrochemical risk assessments. to mitigate the impacts of flooding, sea-level rise, and extreme weather events on water quality"

"National environmental standards should be expanded to include monitoring guidelines and permissible limits for microplastics and nanoplastics and other emerging pollutants", she submitted 

Prof.Yusuf's studies and research works helped in documenting the chemical status of rivers, lagoons, sediments, fish and drinking water sources at a time when such data were either scarce or completely absent