Erstwhile chairman, Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), Environment Division, Mr Odumeru Musilideen, has called on government at levels to engage more health officers to monitor indiscriminate disposal of waste and sanction defaulters with appropriate penalty.
Waste disposal: Lagos waste PSP operators at work
Musilideen made the call in Lagos in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday, July 25, 2018, saying that disposal of pet bottles, cans and e-waste, especially electronic gadgets along waterways and drainage were the major causes of flooding.
He said that defaulters could be sanctioned appropriately because many of such waste, especially gadgets, contained heavy metals such as calcium, mercury that percolate into the soil, posing danger to the environment.
“Many of these elements find their ways into water body and permeate into the ground water sources and the effect can be grave when the water is used for either cooking or drinking.
“Heavy metals are really hazardous as they can damage the kidney and cause cancer,’’ he said.
Musilideen noted that once stringent sanctions were given to offenders for random dumping of waste, the water channels would be free.
He advised Nigerians to embrace the culture of proper waste disposal, to live a healthy life.
South African law enforcement agencies have arrested 13 people on illegal wildlife trade charges as part of the country’s contribution to a global operation against poaching, authorities said on Wednesday, July 25, 2018.
African elephant poaching in conflict zones suggests that corruption, rather than conflict, is the primary enabler of elephant poaching
Operation Thunderstorm was launched by Interpol in May 2018, bringing numerous countries in a joint effort to curb wildlife poaching, according to the South African Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA).
For South Africa, attention was paid to transnational trafficking routes originating at airports and other ports of entry and exit between South Africa and Europe, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
“As well as to international mail centres and the value chain of rhino horn trafficking syndicates,’’ DEA spokesperson, Albi Modise, said.
Among the successes recorded was the confiscation of four endangered Spotted Ragged Tooth Sharks, also known as the Sand Tiger Shark or Dusky Shark, at Cape Town International Airport, during an inspection of a container holding the illegal consignment.
“The seizure of the live sharks, which were being exported to the Netherlands, is an indication that the problem of live shark smuggling is bigger than initially believed as demand for live sharks from aquariums worldwide has increased,’’ Modise said.
According to the DEA, in the operation, law enforcement agents also seized live pangolins, abalone, ivory and rhino horns.
“Worldwide, 1,974 seizures were recorded, and 1,400 people arrested during investigations and searches in 92 countries during Operation Thunderstorm,’’ the DEA said.
In addition, officials had seized 48 live primates, 14 big cats including tiger, lion, leopard and jaguar and several tonnes of wood and timber.
According to the DEA, the operation also saw eight tonnes of pangolin scales seized worldwide, including almost four tonnes by Vietnamese Maritime Authorities on board a ship arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Youths, women groups and grassroots advocates on the platform of the Epe Community Water Parliament (ECWP) have demanded that the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode administraton rehabilitate the Epe Mini Waterworks and evolve solutions to the lingering water crisis in Lagos within democratic and public control.
Epe community members during the protest arch
The ECWP, an affiliate of the Our Water, Our Right Coalition, registered its aversion to water privatisation plans by the state government through a protest march on the streets of Epe and a visit to the campaigns office of Olusegun Olulade, representing Epe Constituency II at the Lagos State House of Assembly, asking him to side with them in demands to keep Lagos water public. The group also marched to the premises of the Epe Mini Waterworks where they displayed placards with various inscriptions and demanded rehabilitation of the facility.
Coordinator of ECWP, Adesanya Oguntimirin, said that the Epe community had reservations about plans to concession Lagos water infrastructure to privatisers under a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model of water privatisation which will bring in three corporations with allaged unsavory human rights record. The corporations are Veolia, Abengoa and Metito.
“The PPP is an anti-people model because it is built only on the premise that water is a commodity that money can be made from. It does not accommodate the human right to water and is difficult to exit. It is laced with uncertainties such as rate hikes, service cutoffs, unfulfilled infrastructure promises which, combined, will not guarantee access to water by our mostly poor people.”
He said that the Epe people in unanimity reject water privatisation and want a rehabilitation for the waterworks in the community to reduce the suffering of mostly women who will have to go long distances to get water at huge costs.
A women rights activist, Funmi Ajayi, also emphasised the challenges women face in obtaining water, adding that water privatisation would further burden women who will have to cough up more to get water and be cut off if they cannot pay.
“The language of the state government is one that is solely focused on making revenue from water and not anything about human right or anything near it. These poor women here marching against privatisation are the ones who know what lies ahead and have decided to ask that the state government does not take them on that road. We will resist it.”
Speaking in solidarity with the community people, Deputy Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Akinbode Oluwafemi, said that ERA/FoEN stands in full support of the protest march and petition to Olulade, who is representing Epe Constituency.
In his words: “The voice of the people is the voice of God. We anticipate that the representative of the Epe people will hearken to the demands of his people and side with them to demand a halt to PPP and concessioning of the future of our people to for-profit only entities.”
The ERA/FoEN boss also added: “While we can see that a lot of development has come to the Epe community in form of good roads and lighting of the streets, the most crucial element of life which is water is still elusive because of the non-rehabilitation of the mini water works.”
Representative of the Epe women, Bisi Fasasi, said that the reports of plans to privatise water was already sending jitters down the spines of the women, even as she cautioned that water should not be privatised under any guise as it would add more burden to women already weighed down with ensuring their household had adequate water for basic use.
Fasasi added that the inability of the Epe mini waterworks to deliver potable water to the locals had forced most households to patronise unwholesome sources that continually expose them to illnesses.
In the petition to Olulade, the group asked him to side with them on their demands for the rehabilitation of the Epe Mini-Waterworks, a halt to concession of Lagos water infrastructure with transnational corporations like Veolia, Metito, Abengoa; and that the Akinwunmi Ambode administration fully uphold the human right to water as an obligation of the government representing the people.
It also asked Governor Ambode to integrate broad public participation including that of women in developing plans to achieve universal access to clean water, rejection of contracts designed by or involving the IFC, which operates to maximise private profit, increase in budgetary allocation to the water sector, and the institution of a Water Trust Fund that will expand public financing of the water sector.
The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) has told grain importers to ensure that their activities follow the agency’s import guidelines.
Participants at the interactive session
Dr. Rufus Ebegba, Director General/CEO NBMA, made the appeal during an interactive session with grain importers on Wednesday, July 25, 2018 in Abuja.
Dr Ebegba noted that, over the years, most seed companies imported grains from countries where most grains are genetically modified.
“Some companies still feign ignorance about where GM grains are produced across the globe and continue to import from such countries, this meeting is to enlighten the companies and ensure that everybody keys into the biosafety system.”
“Companies have been importing GMOs for years even before the establishment of NBMA. Now that a regulatory agency is in place, the need to abide by the NBMA Act 2015 is necessary,” he said.
He said that the federal government is interested in providing a conducive environment for businesses to thrive, but it is the responsibility of the business community to comply with the necessary laws and guidelines provided by the government.
He informed the companies that border agencies of the federal government would not allow any bulk importation of genetically modified seeds or grains into the country without a biosafety permit.
The Director General who noted that some companies have already been granted Biosafety permits by the agency said that the agency would not compromise its stand in ensuring that the health of Nigerians and the environment are not threatened by any potential risk posed by GMOs.
In a message, Dr. Mathew Dore, Country Coordinator, Programme for Biosafety Systems (PBS), urged the companies to work together and cooperate with NBMA for the successful execution of the import guidelines.
The participants at the meeting, which attracted over 50 grain importing companies and representatives of ministries and agencies, agreed to work with NBMA for the formation of a strong and viable seed/grains importer’s network that will allow for effective monitoring and supervision.
International waters – known as the “common heritage of (human)kind” – are said to be under a new and supposedly deadly threat from the deep-sea mining industry.
Deep-sea mining
The International Seabed Authority (ISA), a UN agency which has reportedly not received much public scrutiny until now, meets in Kingston, Jamaica this week to discuss how to open up the deep-sea bed to mining. Scientists, academics, and non-governmental organisations have however united in a joint letter to raise alarm over “this ultimate threat to our oceans”.
Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and Alternative Nobel Prize recipient, stated, “Oceans play a critical role in maintaining life on the planet. However, the ISA continues to ignore the profound lack of scientific understanding of the immediate and long-term ecological costs of digging up the sea floor.
“It is evident that large private and state-owned conglomerates have succeeded in shifting the ISA’s regulatory discussions toward outcomes favourable to corporate-directed industrial development. Our joint letter is a call from civil society globally to protect our common heritage.”
Renowned marine biologists, including Cindy Van Dover and colleagues, have recently pointed out that deep-sea mining would impact both the seabed and the water column, such that biodiversity loss would be both “unavoidable” and “likely to last forever on human timescales.”
“The world’s seas are already on the brink of catastrophe from overfishing, pollution, such as from plastics and chemicals, destruction of critical habitat such as mangroves and coral reefs, global warming and acidification,” said Catherine Coumans of MiningWatch Canada.
“The oceans cannot survive wide scale destruction of the sea bed by the same irresponsible industry that mines on land.”
The signers of the joint letter noted: “This is not the time to move forward with an extractive regime; there are far too many uncertainties. International leadership at the ISA is required to prevent recklessly proceeding with deep-sea mining.”
The ISA has already issued numerous exploration contracts in international waters to mining interests supported by member states of the ISA. As these exploration contracts come to an end, the ISA is considering implementing a regime to allow extraction.
Raj Patel, Activist, New York Times best-selling author and Research Professor, University of Texas claimed, “When the Law of the Sea was written and the idea of ‘common inheritance’ first framed, I’m certain that corporations weren’t intended to inherit the seabed. There’s little evidence that corporate stewardship is compatible with the continued, sustained health of these under-studied ecosystems.
“The seabed is everyone’s common inheritance, and we need broad, transnational and formal public consultation to learn and then decide how best to ensure its survival for those who will inherit it from us.”
Rather than permitting deep sea mining the ISA must declare a moratorium on deep sea mining before irreparable damage is done to the health of the world’s oceans, declared the activists.
Executive Director of the National Environment Agency in the Gambia has disclosed that chemicals are important determinants for sustainable development, sound environmental health and quality of life, as we use them in all human activities including agriculture, health, energy production, manufacturing, services and residential that contributes to improving the quality of life. But he also raised concerns about its harmful effects on workers, consumers, the environment and society at large through exposure.
Momodou Jaama Suwareh
Momodou Jama Suwareh made these statements during a consultative meeting for National Assembly Select Committee on the Environment on Institutional Capacity Building for the Implementation of the Multi-lateral Environment Agreements (MEAs) such as the Stockholm, Rotterdam, Basel, Minamata Conventions and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), held recently. Further lamenting on, he noted that accidental releases from the distribution, consumption and disposal of chemicals may permanently damage soil, water and air.
According to the NEA Executive Director, the purpose of this cross-learning convergence is to thoroughly scrutinise and discuss the project activities and the roles and responsibilities of National Assembly Members during implementation.
“The Stockholm Convention is a legally binding international instrument, designed to lead to gradual decrease of the presence of persistent organic pollutants in the environment. The Gambia is a party to the Stockholm Convention. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are toxic chemicals that adversely affect human health and the environment around the world. Because they can be transported by wind and water, most POPs generated in one country can and do affect people and wildlife far from where they are used and released. They persist for long periods of time in the environment and can accumulate and pass from one species to the next through the food chain,” Suwareh pointed out.
The Gambia government in partnership with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Suwareh revealed that Special Programme Secretariat is implementing this important project as part of the implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), Basel Convention on control of trans-boundary movement of hazardous wastes and their disposal, Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure, Minamata Convention on Mercury, and Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).
He said The Gambia has ratified all the aforementioned conventions with the ultimate aim to protect human health and the environment and has also recognised the need towards the development of an institutional framework for the sound management of chemicals and waste to enhance implementation at national level. To meet her obligations under these Conventions, he said The Gambia had to prepare a project proposal and submitted it to the Special Programme Secretariat for funding, that led to the present programme with the NAMs.
According to the NEA boss, the objective of the Special Programme is to support country-driven institutional strengthening at the national level, in the context of an integrated approach to address the financing of the sound management of chemicals and wastes, taking into account the national development strategies, plans and priorities of each country, to increase sustainable public institutional capacity for the sound management of chemicals and wastes throughout their life cycle. In addition, he sighted Institutional strengthening under the Special Programme will facilitate and enable the implementation of the chemical convention to which The Gambia is a State Party.
To enlighten the people living in The Gambia on sound chemical management, Suwareh induced that his institution in collaboration with relevant NAMs Select Committees, organised the meeting which aimed at raising public awareness about chemicals and their related issues.
Some of the expected outcomes of institutional strengthening through the special project are to develop and monitor the implementation of national policies, strategies, programmes and legislation for the sound management of chemicals and wastes; promote the adoption, monitoring and enforcement of legislation and regulatory frameworks for the sound management of chemicals and wastes; promote the mainstreaming of the sound management of chemicals and wastes into national development plans, national budgets, policies, legislation and implementation frameworks at all levels, including addressing gaps and avoiding duplication.
He therefore recognised the importance of the participation of NAMs in realising the above outcomes in the consultative forum to gain deeper understanding of the chemical conventions since they impact on many sectors, including policy-making, law-making, environmental protection, and public health, industry and the private sector and various interest groups.
He therefore called on the NAMs to influence and clout to play pro-active roles in achieving our desired goals in environmental preservation. “I challenge all of us both individually and collectively to demonstrate our commitments towards meeting our national obligations in the implementation of the MEAs,” he concluded.
The Chairman of the NAMs Select Committee on the Environment, Sainey Touray, commended the NEA for organising such educative gathering for them at this crucial time of the year when many including farmers are busy dealing with the chemicals with a second thought of its negative impact on both the environment and people.
Chinese researchers have found that honey bee queens have exceptional memory and learning abilities.
Queen bee
Ken Tan, a researcher at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said different foods eaten by bee larvae lead to differences in DNA methylation, mechanisms used by cells to control gene expression, between queens and workers.
He said queens exclusively feed royal jelly, while workers only eat the jelly for the first three
days and then mainly feed on pollen and honey.
Tan used olfactory learning experiments to test queens and workers and found queens showed excellent learning and memory abilities.
He said, at five days old, queens have a memory and learning level that is equivalent to workers at 20 to 25 days of age.
The proportion of queens that exhibited learning was five-fold that of workers at every tested age.
Tan said bee’s exceptional memories are closely connected to DNA methylation.
The research findings were published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
A wildfire killed at least 50 people and injured scores more as it swept through a small resort town near Athens, Nikos Economopoulos, Head of Greece’s Red Cross, said on Tuesday, July 24, 2018.
Deadly wildfire consumes Athens
He told Skai TV that the wildfire trapped families with children behind walls of smoke and flames as they tried to flee to the beach.
The fire in Mati was by far Greece’s worst since flames devastated the southern Peloponnese peninsula in August 2007, killing dozens.
It broke out late on Monday afternoon and was still burning in some areas on Tuesday morning.
People scrambled to the sea as the blaze closed in near the shore while hundreds were rescued by passing boats, but the fire moved too fast for others.
“I was briefed by a rescuer that he saw the shocking picture of 26 people tightly huddled in a field some 30 meters from the beach.
“They had tried to find an escape route but unfortunately these people and their kids didn’t make it in time,” Economopoulos said.
A Reuters photographer saw at least four dead on a narrow road clogged with cars heading to a nearby beach and heard reports of several more casualties.
“Residents and visitors in the area did not escape in time even though they were a few meters from the sea or in their homes,” fire brigade spokeswoman Stavroula Maliri said.
Mati is in the eastern Rafina region, a popular spot for Greek holiday-makers, particularly pensioners and children at camps, 29 km (18 miles) east of the capital.
The 26 deaths came on top of more than 20 reported by government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos on Tuesday.
“One of the youngest victims was thought to be a six-month-old baby who died of smoke inhalation.
“Out of the 156 people injured, 11 were in intensive care, officials said.
The coastguard said four more bodies were retrieved from the sea.
In total, coastguard and other vessels rescued 696 people who had fled to beaches. Boats plucked another 19 people alive from the water.
Greece’s fire brigade said the intensity and spread of the wildfire at Mati had slowed on Tuesday as winds died down, but it was still not fully under control.
The service urged residents to report missing relatives and friends.
White smoke rose from smoldering fires in parts of Mati early on Tuesday. Burned-out cars were scattered outside gated compounds where three- and four-storey buildings bore signs of fire damage.
“It is a difficult night for Greece,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said.
Greece issued an urgent appeal for help to tackle fires that raged out of control in several places across the country, destroying homes and disrupting major transport links.
Cyprus and Spain offered assistance after Greece said it needed air and land assets from European Union partners.
Newspaper printed banner headlines including “killer fire” and “hell” and reported fears the death toll would climb.
Authorities said they would use an unmanned drone from the United States to monitor and track any suspicious activity.
Tsipras and Greek officials have expressed misgivings at the fact that several major fires broke out at the same time.
Wildfires are not uncommon in Greece, and a relatively dry winter helped create the current tinder-box conditions. It was not immediately clear what ignited the fires.
A hillside of homes was gutted by flames east of Athens. A mayor said he saw at least 100 homes and 200 vehicles burning.
Earlier on Monday, Greek authorities urged residents of a coastal region west of Athens to abandon their homes as another wildfire burned ferociously, closing one of Greece’s busiest motorways, halting train links and sending plumes of smoke over the capital.
The main Athens-Corinth motorway, one of two road routes to the Peloponnese peninsula, was closed and train services were canceled.
More people died of heat-related illnesses as heat wave continued to scorch wide swathes of Japan on Tuesday, July 24, 2018.
Children play in a fountain in a Nagoya park as the heat wave continued
According to public broadcaster NHK, no fewer than eight people across Japan died of suspected heatstroke and 1,830 people were sent to hospitals on Tuesday.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), 630 of its 927 observation points across Japan logged temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius, and 211 registered readings surpassing 35 degrees Celsius.
The agency warned of heat-related illnesses, such as heatstroke and dehydration and asked the public to take preventative measures.
A protracted heat wave over the past two weeks has caused dozens of deaths and tens of thousands hospitalised in Japan.
Japan logged its highest ever temperature on Monday, as the temperature in Kumagaya, a city in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo, hit a record high of 41.1 degrees Celsius.
A non-for-profit group, Foundation for the Protection of Women and Children in Nigeria, has urged Nigerians to plant trees this year to protect the environment from climate change and desertification.
Tree planting
Ramatu Tijjani, Founder of the NGO, made the call while speaking to newsman on Tuesday, July 24, 2018 in Kaduna.
Tijjani said that the NGO had embarked on a tree planting campaign to rise awareness on the dangers associated with global warming.
She said the aim of the campaign was to bring to the attention of citizens the importance of planting more trees in their communities.
Nigeria’s forestry sector is in great danger due to the increasing demand of forest trees for domestic uses, hence the need to raise awareness for citizens to contribute to the daily battle against felling trees without planting new ones to replace them.
According to him, trees provide woodland habitats for a wide array of plants, flowers, birds, mammals and insects.
He said that without these vital habitats and the means to propagate and pollinate, many more valuable plants and wildlife would suffer as a direct consequence.
“By planting trees, you can make a real contribution to the environment and take a positive step toward offsetting company’s carbon footprint”.
She appealed to government at all levels, stakeholders, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment and all Nigerians to scale up awareness creation efforts to boost tree planting.
She said this move would help mitigate the adverse impact of global warming, desertification and deforestation.
According to her, all living creatures need oxygen to survive and because the trees play an impressive role of availing oxygen, it is imperative to plant a tree today for a sustainable future.
Additionally, she said, traditional title holders and religious leaders had a big role to play in helping activists convey the massage, adding that that both religious encourage tree planting.
Meanwhile, Musa Sani, one of the youth leaders in Kawo, Kaduna, who attended one of the campaigns in his community, thanked the organisers for availing his community of the knowledge.
He then urged NGOs and CSOs working on environmental issues to organise more enlightenment campaigns in both rural and urban cities across the 36s states of the federation.
