Reactions have continued to trail the new seven-storey 150-bed  Massey Street Children’s Hospital being constructed by the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration.

The health facility is said to be located close to the Lagos State Waste Management Agency’s refuse transfer loading station on Adeniji Adele Road, Lagos Island.

Sanwo- Olu had, on April 28, inaugurated the construction of Massey Street Children’s Hospital, a 150-bed specialist facility for children in the state.

The governor said the construction of the facility reflected his administration’s unwavering determination to bridge all gaps in the health sector.

“The current Massey Children’s Hospital was established in 1914 as the First General Outpatient Clinic and Referral Centre in Lagos State. It was converted to a full-fledged Paediatrics Hospital in 1961,” Sanwo-Olu had said.

Adeniji Adele Road is one of the busiest routes in Lagos Island because it links the Third Mainland Bridge and Sura market area.

PUNCH HealthWise reported that the proposed children hospital, which is just a few metres from the LAWMA facility might affect would-be users of the hospital when completed owing to environmental pollution.

Aside from being an unpleasant area to site a wellness or health facility, it also accommodates the notorious Adenji Adele Central police Station along the same axis.

Therefore, constructing a hospital in the face of such heavy vehicular movements, blaring of horns and loud calls for passengers, as well as heavy commercial activities such as street trading might trouble the operation of the facility.

The number of cars parked on the road and the volume of trucks plying it as of the time of investigation were overwhelming.

A resident of the area, Gbenga Ojo, described Sanwo-Olu’s decision to site a children’s hospital in Adeniji Adele environ, being one of the heavy commercial areas in the state, as unsuitable.

“You can see things for yourself. The hospital is close to a LAWMA facility that receives and transfers refuse on a daily basis.

“Apart from that, this area is too busy for a children’s hospital to be located. You have lots of vehicles parked on the road. We witness obstruction of traffic every now and then and you have a lot of miscreants in this environment,” he said.

Rafiu, a local businessman in Adeniji Adele, also berated the government saying that the LAWMA facility would definitely affect the children’s hospital when completed.

“The LAWMA trucks are always on the road and sometimes, when they break down, they constitute a nuisance to the environment.

“There are a lot of commercial activities on Adeniji Adele Road. The atmosphere is always tense. Sometime in the past, we did experience unpleasant odour coming from the LAWMA facility, especially when their vehicles broke down and also when it rained,” he alleged.

However, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso thinks otherwise.

Omotoso who spoke during a radio interview on Nigeria Info with Jimi Disu on Friday, stated that the LAWMA facility does not hold refuse.

He also emphasisied that an Environmental Impact Assessment of the area was done before the site was chosen, insisting that the gap between the LAWMA facility and the site of the children’s hospital is wide.

“The size of the land is so large. So, it won’t have anything to do with the LAWMA facility.

“The LAWMA facility is not a facility that holds waste. It is a transfer base. It is in an enclosure and has nothing to do with the hospital. It is disinfected at all times. When you go there, you will not perceive any odour,” the commissioner told his radio host, Jimi Disu, who had also decried the proposed children’s hospital location.

Omotoso added that the LAWMA facility will, instead, complement the hospital by managing its non-medical wastes, assuring that environmental experts and doctors had also visited the site.