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Sanitation, good hygiene practices improve quality of lives in Kaduna community

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Sanitation, good hygiene practices improve quality of lives in Kaduna community

Members of Abadawa community in Lere Local Government Area of Kaduna State said on Wednesday, August 1, 2018 that adequate sanitation and good hygiene practices have significantly improved the quality of their lives.

Nasir el Rufai
Nasir el Rufai, Governor of Kaduna

They also said that access to clean water 24 hours a day was another life changing experience that have added value to the lives of the about 2,500 inhabitants of the community.

They stated this while interacting with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who was in the community to access the impact of the Phase II of Sanitation, Hygiene and Water in Nigeria (SHAWN) project.

Mrs Khadijat Adamu, a member of the community’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Committee, said that until the SHAWN project, the community sees sanitation and good hygiene practices as exclusive to urban life.

“As a rural community, we erroneously assumed that access to clean water, maintaining clean environment and good hygiene practices were the privilege of the rich in urban areas.

“This is a community where until now, our only source of water was a well dug in 1954 and dries-up every year between April and May, forcing us to share water with animals in nearby stream.

“With the absence of toilets, we defecate openly including our backyard, while our children do it in any available space in the house.

“We simply had no idea of how to keep our environment clean; why we should wash our hands always; and how our unhygienic practices predispose us and our children to all kinds of preventable diseases.

“For us, these unhygienic practices are normal lives of rural dwellers, and so we live a life of envy and wish that someday, we shall relocate to urban areas where quality of life is assured.

“There, we will get to drink clean water and live in clean environment away from the flies, reptiles and all kinds of insects that we shared our homes with,” she said.

She, however, said that the coming of SHAWN project in the community had changed their negative perception about life and proved that even rural dwellers could live a quality life.

According to her, the project provided a motorised borehole that supply the community with clean water for 24 hours, and equipped them with life changing knowledge about sanitation and good hygiene practices for healthy living.

Similarly, the Chairman of the community’s WASH Committee, Malam Samaila Matu, said that every household now have a toilet facility to check against open defecation.

Matu also said that the committee mobilise resources through levy and fines to maintain the water facility and goes round every two week to ensure that every household maintain a clean environment.

The District Head of Abadawa, Malam Dahiru Abubakar, equally described the SHAWN project as a “life changer’’ for his people, and thanked UNICEF, Kaduna State Government and other partners for making his community a beneficiary.

According to him, the project has ended the community’s circle of hardship in accessing clean water, while good hygiene practices have curbed the prevalence of preventable diseases, particularly among children under five years.

The story was no different in Unguwan Rimi, a community of about 3,600 people also in Lere local government area, where the community compete with animals for water in the river when available wells dried up between April and May.

A 10-year-old Yasir Ya’u said he spent about three hours daily to fill a 75 litre container with water from the river for his mother after returning from school.

Ya’u, a primary four pupil of Universal Basic Education Primary School, Unguwan Rimi, added that he has developed back pain due to the long distance and hours spent to get water.

“However, my story had changed when in 2017 a motorised borehole was provided for our community under the SHAWN II project.

“The development has ended my years of agony and pains and provided me with more playing hours,’’ he said.

Malam Ibrahim Shuaibu, another member of the community, thanked UNICEF and Kaduna State Government for improving the quality of life of rural dwellers, noting that “water is life”.

NAN reports that the SHAWN II project is aimed at improving access to sanitation, hygiene and water supply to all citizens through eradication of open defecation, hand washing promotion, sanitation and provision of water facility.

It is being funded by United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and UNICEF with counterpart funding from the state governments of Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Benue, Bauchi and Jigawa.

By Philip Yatai

UN certifies first ever climate neutral football club

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UN certifies first ever climate neutral football club

Forest Green Rovers from England has become the world’s first UN certified Climate Neutral Now football club by pledging to measure, reduce and offset greenhouse gas emissions during their upcoming season.

forest green rovers
Forest Green Rovers’ pitch

Sports and leisure activities around the world have a major role to play to reduce climate impacts and limit the average global temperature rise to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

“This commitment is part of a growing movement where all of civil society, including the world of sports, has begun to act on climate change,“ said Miguel Alejandro Naranjo Gonzalez of UN Climate Change, who works with on Climate Neutral Now initiatve.

Forest Green Rovers joins international sports organisations such as Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the Adidas Group to take climate action in partnership with the UN.

Sports and leisure activities often have high carbon footprints, for example from the travel of large numbers of peoples to key events. Such events need to involve offsetting, sustainable catering and energy from renewable sources to be climate-friendly.

For this sector, taking climate action makes simple economic sense. Threatened by supply chain disruption, extreme weather events and rising resource costs, forward-thinking organizations support bold climate action. By greening their operations, sports teams and management organisations are creating jobs and becoming more competitive.

“The fact that Forest Green Rovers as a relatively small club has joined the Climate Neutral Now initiative demonstrates that everyone can score goals for climate action. Such action requires first and foremost a commitment to sustainable life styles, and not necessarily a big budget,” said Mr. Naranjo.

Athletic organisations inspire and delight citizens all over the world, and as such can greatly increase awareness and promote additional climate action from everyday citizens.

“We’re finding that the combination of a football club and the environment is really something special,” said Forest Green Rovers Chairman Dale Vince in an interview with UN Climate Change.

“The work we do has resonated with a global audience, people who have an interest in the environment and have become fans of FGR because we stand up for these issues, or football fans that have just never seen a club take a stance like this before and get it. It’s a new combination that’s getting traction everywhere,” added Mr. Vince.

The club has proven with their diet, energy consumption, water usage, and transportation methods that their sustainability and climate ambition, in day-to-day operations, can be replicated at any level.

After switching to a plant based diet, for all players, fans, staff, to mitigate the environmental impacts of meat consumption, Forest Green Rovers is the world’s only vegan football club and has been described by FIFA as “The Greenest Football Club in the World”.

Forest Green Rovers takes major steps to be sustainable by being powered by 100% green energy with solar panels, using a solar powered robot to cut the team’s pitch, recycling rainwater from the team’s pitch and stands and including electric vehicle charging facilities at its stadium.

Currently the club is planning to build the “greenest football stadium in the world” which will be an all wooden stadium.

“It’s part of a 50-hectare development we call Eco Park, which is roughly half sports complex and half green-tech business park. The whole development will bring a 16% increase in biodiversity. It shows development done in the right way can be sustainable in every sense,” said Mr. Vince.

“We always felt that football fans are a passionate group of people. If we could invoke the same kind of passion for environment issues that they feel for their club, we could create some passionate environmentalists and drive change that way,” he added.

UN Climate Change encourages sports organisations around the world to follow the example of Forest Green Rovers to become Climate Neutral.

EarthEcho youth leaders convene in Washington

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EarthEcho youth leaders convene in Washington

Some 32 EarthEcho Youth Leadership Council and Water Challenge Ambassador members, ages 13-22, from across the world will convene on Thursday, August 2, 2018 in Washington, DC, for the annual Leadership Summit.

EarthEcho Youth Leadership
Participants at an event by the EarthEcho Youth Leadership Council and Water Challenge Ambassador

The EarthEcho Youth Leadership Council (YLC) is a group of environmental advocates and problem solvers who are committed to inspiring and empowering others to take action. Throughout the year, they work to develop new programming with EarthEcho’s staff to ensure that programmes authentically engage with young people as advocates and leaders. A core belief of EarthEcho International is that young people are the hearts and minds – not just the hands and feet – of the environmental movement.

The EarthEcho Water Challenge Ambassadors represent a new initiative developed by the YLC. These young people hail from communities across the U.S. and have committed to taking action around water quality in their home communities. The Water Challenge Ambassadors are participating in professional development to prepare them to lead water monitoring events in 20 communities across the U.S. on Water Monitoring Day on September 18.

While these young people are on their way from communities in Australia, Chile, Hawaii, Michigan, Florida, Puerto Rico, and many more, they are still fundraising to support their travel to Washington.

World Breastfeeding Week: Husbands urged to encourage exclusive breastfeeding

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World Breastfeeding Week: Husbands urged to encourage exclusive breastfeeding

Some health stakeholders in Nasarawa State have urged husbands to help promote and support six months exclusive breastfeeding by encouraging their wives.

Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding

The stakeholders made their opinions known in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday, August 1, 2018 in Akwanga Local Government Area of the state where the 2018 World Breastfeeding Week was kicked off with a news conference.

The state is joining in the celebration of the annual World Breastfeeding Week held every year from Aug. 1 to Aug. 7, to promote exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months which yields tremendous health benefits, providing critical nutrients, protection from deadly diseases.

The theme of the 2018 celebration is “Breastfeeding: The foundation for Life’’.

Dr Absalom Madawa, Director, Primary Health Care, Nasarawa state Primary Health Care Development Agency (NSPHCDA), told NAN that husbands need to play their role in the entrenchment of six months exclusive breastfeeding in the society.

He added that the crucial position husbands occupy in the society and in the lives of a child made it imperative to urge them to support their wives in raising a child properly by encouraging six months exclusive breastfeeding for the benefit of a child’s health and nutrition.

“Husbands play a crucial role here. They need to support the women to give breast milk to the child and to give it exclusively for the first six months.

“Sometimes, you find husbands challenging their wives on why the child is not given water.

“But all the water the child needs is in the breast milk. The child does not need any additional water because inside the breast milk and part of its content is water and that is enough.

“So I use this opportunity to urge our men to always encourage their wives on breast milk so as to raise healthy children,” he said.

Another health stakeholder, Dr Ibrahim Alhassan, Director, Public Health, Nasarawa state Ministry of Health, said the consequences of malnutrition goes beyond the physical illnesses it causes.

“Husbands need to be supportive because the consequences of malnutrition go beyond the physical illness the patient may suffer.

“There is also mental retardation and mental challenge for the children affected. Once that happens, academic performance becomes a challenge,” he warned.

Hajiya Amina Ahmed, Director of Social Mobilisation, NSPHCDA, however said apart from the crucial support from husbands, employers need to promote breastfeeding by creating an enabling environment for nursing mothers to constantly attend to their infants.

“The role husbands play is too crucial to ignore. That is why we have to continue to enlighten them to encourage and not discourage their wives to embrace exclusive breastfeeding.

“Employers also have a role to play because we have women who are been employed in different places. So employers cannot but promote breastfeeding for them and to that they have to create the enabling environment for them to be able to have their children within earshot of that.

“This is because when the child needs breast milk, the child can be given because breast milk is given on demand so that if the child cries one million times, the mother has to provide breast milk one million times,” she said.

By Olukayode Babalola

Africa moves to sustainably green its judiciaries

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Africa moves to sustainably green its judiciaries

African Chief Justices and Presidents of Supreme and Regional courts on Wednesday, August 1, 2018 commenced a three-day symposium in the Mozambican’s capital of Maputo to discuss how to strengthen adjudication of environmental disputes in Africa. The symposium aims at establishing Sustainable Green Judiciaries across the continent through empowering judicial training institutions.

Adelino Manuel Muchanga
Adelino Manuel Muchanga, Chief Justice of Mozambique

Participating in the second symposium on greening the judiciaries in Africa are also judicial educators, heads of judicial education institutions, representatives of judicial systems from France, Brazil, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. The symposium is supported by Institut de la Francophonie pour le development durable, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Austrian Government, the Swiss Government, International Fund for Animal Welfare and the International Commission of Jurists.

“The judiciary is uniquely placed as a body that can transform and advance environmental matters. Enhancing the capacity of judges and magistrates is critical to the achievement of sustainable development goals,” said Adelino Manuel Muchanga, Chief Justice of Mozambique.

Participants will also discuss how to empower judicial training institutions in Africa on environmental matters. The objective is to equip judges, magistrates and judicial staff with knowledge and skills on adjudication and resolution of environment cases to ensure environmental sustainability.

“You have a critical role to play in ensuring environmental matters are adequately and fairly adjudicated to ensure the environmental injustice is mitigated or avoided,” said Elizabeth Mrema, Director of Law Division, UN Environment, at the opening of the symposium.

“This symposium provides a platform for you as heads of judiciaries, to discuss the emerging trends on adjudication of environment cases to strengthen the rule of law, promote and sustain judicial education, among others,” she added.

A regional curriculum and manual on environmental law for Judges and Magistrates will be launched at the symposium.

Participants will also seize the opportunity to launch the Africa Judicial Educators Network on Environmental Law.

“It is the expectation of the Africa Judicial Educators Network on Environmental Law that the use of the curriculum and manual will contribute to sustainable development in Africa and consequently in the whole world,” said Justice Sir Dennis Adjei, the chairperson of the Africa Judicial Educators Network on Environmental Law.

The African Judicial Network on Environmental Law will provide opportunities for exchanging information, create partnerships for collaboration, strengthen capacity, and provide research and analysis on environmental adjudication, court practices, and environmental rule of law.

A judiciary well informed of the rapidly expanding boundaries of environmental law issues would play a critical role in ensuring a healthy and secure environment through the interpretation, enhancement and enforcement of environmental law.

Trainings on environmental law in Africa have always been ad hoc and inconsistent. With this new approach to integrate environmental law through curriculum and manual development, a sustainable training programme for the judiciary is achievable.

Illegal trading of natural resources is estimated to cost Africa US$120 billion per annum, which is 5% of the Continent’s GDP. A strong judiciary system will help Africa to curb these illegal activities in environment and natural resources and use the savings to achieve its sustainable development goals.

Experts seek to advance landscape restoration in Africa

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Experts seek to advance landscape restoration in Africa

Finding solutions to meet the challenge of landscape restoration in Africa, where almost 50 million hectares of land is degraded each year, is a complex challenge requiring an innovative, coordinated, international response, says a top forestry expert who will speak at an upcoming conference in Nairobi.

Robert Nasi
Robert Nasi, Director General of the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

Over 800 multi-sector stakeholders from across Africa and around the world will meet in Nairobi, along with at least 30,000 people online, at the “Prospects and Opportunities for Restoration in Africa” Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) at UN Environment headquarters in Nairobi from August 29 to 30.

“Africa’s landscape must be restored to ensure the natural resource needs of the continent’s rapidly expanding population will one day be met, but there is no silver bullet,” cautioned Robert Nasi, director general of the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), co-coordinator of GLF with UN Environment and the World Bank.

The event will highlight many current landscape restoration initiatives and help set the stage for many more, demonstrating how countries are building on political will through actions on the ground to tackle land degradation.

Although annually Africa loses about 2.8 million hectares of forest, an area roughly the size of Saudi Arabia, the continent shows immense potential for landscape restoration. In total, two thirds of the continent’s land mass is degraded, according to World Resources Institute.

“Africa’s population growth protections are one key aspect of the challenge,” said Erik Solheim, executive director of UN Environment, who will speak at the Nairobi event. “Another is that many parts of the world will be looking to Africa for food production. The key challenge is therefore how do you provide for job creation and increased food production, and protect the environment? The answer is of course proper land-use planning.”

Local communities have restored more than five million ha of degraded landscapes across the continent, while more than 20 nations have pledged to restore 100 million ha of forest by 2030 through the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100).

At GLF Nairobi 2018, delegates representing governments, international and grassroots organisations, the financial and private sector, indigenous communities and youth will draw upon these initiatives to pave the way forward in making forest and landscape restoration a reality.

Dialogues will take the shape of discussion forums, plenaries, online webinars and Landscape Talks, similar to TED Talks, while exciting side events, exhibitions and scientific report launches will celebrate Africa’s work in restoration and inspire action across sectors.

The event offers invaluable opportunities for stories and interviews related to restoration and environmental concerns. In addition to Nasi and Solheim, other key speakers include: Wanjira Mathai, chair of the Green Belt Movement; Hindou Ibrahim, National Geographic explorer and advocate for indigenous knowledge and rights; officials from environmental and forestry ministries across Africa, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Rainforest Alliance and many more.

Clean energy innovators light homes, power devices with water

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Clean energy innovators light homes, power devices with water

A home lighting system, a climate-controlled device that cools the environment, and a zero-emissions electricity generator. All powered by water.

Those are some of the success stories that emerged from the recently-held Clean Energy Innovation Challenge.

Indeed, after a rigorous selection process, challenging boot camp and engaging pitch competition, the winners of the Clean Energy Innovation Challenge were selected at the Co Creation Hub headoffices in Yaba, Lagos on Friday, July 27, 2018.

Clean Energy Innovators Challenge
Clean Energy Innovators Challenge winners with All On CEO, Dr Wiebe Boer

The Clean Energy Innovation Challenge, with the aim of unearthing and supporting renewable energy innovators in Nigeria, awarded startup capital to four early stage energy companies, namely: Aspire, Hydrolite, Hydrotriciton and ZeroElectric.

One of the winners of the $10,000 startup capital is Jos-based Hydrotriciton, a company that has developed a zero-emissions electricity generator that runs completely on water. Commenting on firm’s selection, CEO Choji Bare stated: “To have won this competition will really spur our growth. Our next step is to produce massively and launch into the market.”

Another one of the winners, Aspire, uses solar energy, battery storage and smart inverters to monitor solutions and deliver clean energy solutions to customers.

ZeroELectric has developed a climate-controlled system that cools the environment with water in areas without electricity.

Hydrolite has developed a home lighting system powered purely by water and is designed for off-grid communities. Their torches can last up to two weeks after contact with water.

In addition to startup capital, these companies and the five other finalists will receive top class incubation support from Co Creation Hub to take their ideation phase businesses to the next level.

Speaking on its involvement in the Clean Energy Innovation Challenge, Co-Creation Hub’s Director for Innovation, Femi Longe, said: “With Nigeria’s increasing energy requirements to achieve its developmental goals, amidst the threat of climate change, there is a need to find and support our clean energy innovators to build successful and sustainable businesses around their solutions. We are pleased to be working with All On on such a lofty agenda and look forward to supporting all the innovators to test and scale their ventures.”

The Clean Energy Innovation Challenge will enable All On to further its mandate of supporting innovative models to improve energy access to unserved and underserved segments of the Nigerian population.

Speaking on the impact of the challenge, All On CEO, Dr. Wiebe Boer, remarked: “The quality of applications received, and the winners selected for the Clean Energy Innovation Challenge are a demonstration of the potential that exists in the renewable energy sector in Nigeria. With our startup capital and Co Creation Hub’s incubation expertise, we are hopeful that these companies will mature to become sustainable businesses, employers of labor and on track for exponential growth to address the access to energy challenges that exist in the country.”

All On is an off-grid energy impact investment company that works with partners to increase access to commercial energy products and services for under-served and un-served off-grid energy markets in Nigeria, with a special focus on the Niger Delta.

At Olomola Lecture, experts advocate inclusive urban planning

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At Olomola Lecture, experts advocate inclusive urban planning

Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Lagos Chapter, Mr Kunle Salami, has called for inclusive urban planning to achieve the sustainable Lagos smart city.

Olomola lecture
Dignitaries at the maiden edition of Dr Femi Olomola Annual Lecture in Lagos

Salami made the call while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday, July 26, 2018 on the sideline of the maiden edition of Dr Femi Olomola Annual Lecture, organised by the institute in Lagos.

He said for an achievable and effective integrated urban development in Lagos, governments at all levels must ensure an intensive engagement with the stakeholders, professionals and other relevant bodies.

Lack of this was one of the reasons why Lagos seemed to lack coherent and integrated urban development.

He said citizens needed to be engaged right from the conceptualisation of the plan, to design, implementation and review, stressing the need for regular interface between the governance and the governed.

According to him, to achieve the desired sustainable and inclusive development, the Lagos State government must adopt a people-centered approach in undertaking urban planning.

“Moving toward people-centered urban planning requires a restructuring of policy-making process and a restructuring of jurisdictional responsibility in physical planning and development.

“A dynamic process must evolve where governments will have to transform from regulating and approving institutions to bodies that enable and collaborate with citizens to respond to their needs,” he said.

Salami lamented that several regeneration/redevelopment plans had been prepared, but that the government lacked the will to faithfully commit to them.

“Often times, while those laws remain unimplemented, untried and untested to discover the lacunae, we begin to clamour for an amendment, a review or a totally new formulation.

“Unfortunately, things don’t suddenly change for the better with a ‘do nothing’ approach; neither do they change through prayer and fasting only,” he added.

Lagos state Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Rotimi Ogunleye, urged town planners to play a more active role in infrastructure and urban development of the state.

He admitted that planning a city is tough, as a result-oriented stakeholders meetings and involvement should be paramount.

According to him, many of the sub-Saharan African major cities are rapidly going through a process of urban restructuring and physical transformation in their struggles to be integrated into the global economic system.

“To key-in into this new order of things, the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State places high premium on building a collective stake in urban development planning and regeneration to foster inclusive sustainable Lagos smart city.

“Lagos, just like many other sub-Saharan Africa’s large cities, is cut in the struggles of managing population growth, urban development challenges and quest for urban modernity,” he said.

The Commissioner noted that an inclusive urban development model particularly in Nigeria can only be systematic, as it is rooted in a couple of principles that cannot be achieved overnight.

He commended the organisers for making Inclusive Urban Development a key issue of discussion at the lecture.

“This is bound to provoke a deeper understanding of the model and its positive implications in tackling city challenges and improving citizen’s quality of life.

“The renewed role for Urban Planning must incorporate the diverse views in planning decisions, consider the dynamic character of the urban area and thereby create a new form of urbanism: an urbanism for all and sundry.

“Stakeholders must be engaged in the development of plans and securing financial outlays for the implementation of selected priority projects.

“We are all resistant to change, nobody wants a change. But that change is necessary for a better future. And the Town Planners are professionally trained to effect the change,” he added.

Guest speaker, Oye Ibidapo-Obe, former Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, said that infrastructure and urban development was a collective responsibility of both the government’s and the citizens.

Ibidapo-Obe, a professor, said that rapid population growth and urban expansion exert heavy burden on urban facilities, saying that the rapid increase in slums calls the need for proper planning.

He said statistics suggests that about 70 percent of the population of Lagos live in slum, a reality that calls for concern, considering the investment status laws and regulations.

He said that the provisions of housing, serviced land, infrastructure and urban services and livelihood opportunities have not kept pace with the population growth.

“Slum, rather than sickness, is just a symptom showing fundamental inadequacies in planning.

“Upgrading is any intervention that improves the physical conditions of a settlement, which in turn enhances the lives of its inhabitants.

“If the rural areas will be upgraded to be as comfortable as the urban cities, many people will prefer to stay there,” he said.

He added that proper planning brings about urbanisation, economic growth, job opportunities, among others.

By Lilian Okoro

Sustaining global development goals in Nigerian construction industry

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Sustaining global development goals in Nigerian construction industry

The theme of the recent International Conference organised by the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) in Abuja “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Nigerian Construction Industry: Challenges and the Way Forward’’, suggests an indication of the Federal Government’s interest in following the global development trend in all aspects of life.

Professor Danladi Matawal
Director General of Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), Professor Danladi Matawal

In his presentation during the conference, Prof. Danladi Matawal, the Director-General of NBRRI, said that SDGs remained as an effective direction to creating environment conducive for global community.

According to him, SDGs address significant development that Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) failed to do in environmental degradation, inequality, weak institutional capacity and unsustainable consumption behaviour in society.

“In a sense, SDGs can be said to be concise, easy to communicate and action-oriented, which are the advantages over MDGs.

“The goals may also be described as universal, integrated, interlinked, inseparable, planet-sensitive and centered on people,’’ he said.

He said that the government would ensure the provision of smart cities and sustainable communities, design and construction of infrastructure and renewable energy technology.

He also said that a scheme — Sustainable Built Environment (SBE) — would be central to the delivery of policies for sustainable development.

He further explained that the scheme would adopt environment-friendly design, procurement, construction methods and management practices toward efficient buildings and infrastructure.

Matawal said that the SDGs, which reflected a global agenda toward socio-economic development, were indicated in government’s plan for economic development, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

According to him, the increasing determination of society to achieve sustainable development for all has been an influential factor for government’s assent to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which comprise 17 goals, 169 targets and about 100 indicators represent a new direction for the global community,’’ he said.

Matawal observed that the new global development goals for the next 12 years aimed at improving prosperity and wellbeing by addressing the present economic, social and environmental challenges in the society.

“These transformational goals are universally applicable to all countries and tackle the challenges of eliminating extreme poverty, safeguarding environmental sustainability while achieving economic and social wellbeing.

“It also considers different realities, capacities and levels of development of various countries,’’ he said.

Matawal argued that Nigeria ought to key into the rest of the world for innovative, simple, cheap and user-friendly solutions to develop the nation’s building environment.

Expressing the government’s readiness in sustaining SDGs, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, the Minister of Science and Technology, said that the present administration was committed and determined to rebuild nation’s infrastructure, particularly in housing and roads to meet SDGs.

According to him, a good network of roads is vital in the transportation of men, women, children and goods from one part of the country to another.

“We need decent houses for our citizens, the rich and the poor, the old and the young, to live in; we also need houses for our schools, hospitals, offices, markets to mention a few.

“We need roads connecting our numerous cities, our rural areas and those leading from urban to rural areas, to our farms, homes and places of relaxation and entertainment.

“This is very important in getting Nigerians to know the various parts of the country and help them to promote national unity and stability,’’ he said.

He said that such development would open areas of business through the utilisation of local materials for the construction of roads, houses and creation of wealth for individuals and the nation.

Onu also explained that the conference would showcase enormous achievements made by researchers in NIBRRI, noting that the ministry had planned to help the institute to become one of the best in the world.

“Recently NIBRRI protected its intellectual property right by securing a patent for its laminated bamboo board.

“This product utilises wastes bamboo during construction; this is one of the wastes-to-wealth initiative of the institute.

“This product is durable and termite-resistant which serves as a heat insulation, its strength is comparable with those of structural timber product like plywood and provides aesthetics to the interior of a building,’’ Onu said.

But Prof. Kabiru Bala, Chairman, Council of Registered Building of Nigeria, pleaded with the Federal Government to adequately address challenges facing construction industry to meet world standard

He said that such effort would further spur the relevant stakeholders to work toward meeting the desired development in construction industry.

He listed challenges facing Nigerian construction industry to include unethical practice, poor productivity and profitability, shortage of qualified workers and inconsistent prices of building materials, among others.

“The net consequences of these are high incidences of infrastructural failure and collapse arising from lack of adherence to specification.

“The use of foreign codes and standards without consideration for local situations and environmental peculiarities of a project should be discontinued.

“The adoption of the National Building Code of 2006 is gradually gaining grounds and should be promoted to enhance the development of sustainable construction in Nigeria,’’ he said.

He, therefore, advised that the construction industry should be harmonised and conducted in accordance with the relevant laws and standards guiding quality management of buildings and infrastructure development process with the active participation of key stakeholders.

The United Nations (UN) believes that the adoption of the SDGs marks a crucial moment for the global development agenda.

It also holds the belief that the new SDGs and the broader sustainability agenda address significantly the unsustainable consumption behaviour in the society.

By Gabriel Agbeja, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)

Flooding: NEMA warns against dumping of refuse in water ways

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Flooding: NEMA warns against dumping of refuse in water ways

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Kano Operations Office has warned residents of Jigawa and Katsina states, especially those living in flood-prone areas, to desist from dumping refuse in water ways.

refuse disposal
Inadequate refuse disposal and unsavoury habit lead to clogged drainage channels that contribute to flooding

The warning is in a statement signed by the agency’s Head of Operations, Malam Nura Abdullahi in Kano on Tuesday, July 31, 2018.

He stated that the advice was necessary to avoid another major flood following the recent flood disaster which wreaked havoc on many communities in Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State.

He added that “we find it necessary to issue this warning because some residents are in the habit of dumping refuse in drains, which can cause flooding.”

The head of operations also warned residents of the two states, being under the jurisdiction of his office, against erecting structures in flood-prone areas.

Abdullahi noted that the agency would continue to partner with other agencies such as the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), National Orientation Agency (NOA) and media organisations in the two states to sensitise communities about the importance of clearing the drains.

He said mitigation of flood disasters could only be effected through increased awareness and compliance to town planning regulations and due regards to environmental sanitation among citizens.

He added that “disaster management is everyone’s business: we must all play our roles in creating resilient communities.”

By Ramatu Garba

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