The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has commended the recent statement by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation, Leo Heller, who described the 2017 budget proposal for the water sector in Lagos State as unacceptable.Activists lend credence to UN expert’s view on Lagos water policy.
Akinwunmi Ambode, Governor of Lagos State. Photo credit: ecomium.org
Heller’s comments came just weeks after Governor Akinwunmi Ambode presented the 2017 budget to the Lagos State House of Assembly. During the budget presentation, the governor proposed that the state would rely heavily on public-private partnership (PPP) schemes to improve water supply.
Lagos citizens insist that PPPs usually involve private “financing”, which is different from “funding”, which can be provided by a government; because, unlike public infrastructure spending, private partners always expect to make back any money they invest, plus a profit.
Heller said, “Government reports indicate alarmingly high deficits in the sector, representing clearly unacceptable conditions for millions of the megacity’s residents.”
While calling for increased government funding of the water sector and consideration of proven alternative approaches such as for Public-Public Partnerships (PUPs) instead of private partnerships, he pointed out: “For more than a decade, the government has adopted a hard-line policy according to which the solution would seem to only attract private capital, notably via public-private partnerships (PPPs).
“Numerous civil society groups have urged the government to guarantee their right to participate in these processes. I believe that a participatory process is key to finding an adequate solution. But the alternatives proposed by civil society are not given meaningful consideration, while negotiations to initiate PPPs between public authorities and private investors have reportedly occurred in secret.”
Noting the importance of the comments of the Special Rapporteur, the ERA/FoEN Deputy Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said: “We welcome the timing of these comments just a few days before members of the Lagos House of Assembly weigh in on the governor’s 2017 budget which underpins delivery on water promises to the myth called PPP.”
Oluwafemi explained that Governor Ambode’s budget was released several weeks after his own officials actively sought out copies of the recently published water policy book, Lagos Water Crisis: Alternative Roadmap for Water Sector, but failed to meaningfully incorporate any of its detailed recommendations for improving the Lagos water sector. According to him, the Special Rapporteur identified the deterioration of water infrastructure managed by the Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC) and a non-participatory process run by the state government among others as the causes of the vulnerability the people have been exposed to for more than a decade now.
Oluwafemi maintained that civil society groups are in agreement with the solutions proposed by Heller such as boosting the effectiveness of the public service provider, including by adopting appropriate financing schemes and responsibly reducing water losses.
“These recommendations are in agreement with our water policy book, in which we have identified the problems of the sector and elucidated a workable roadmap both at the short term and the long term as alternative to the unworkable and failure-prone private participation being proposed by the Lagos government.
“As the debate towards the passage of the budget commences, we expect the State House of Assembly will do the needful by re-prioritisation of water through increased budgetary allocation, put a stop to all on-going PPP arrangements and create a structure to ensure Lagos benefit from the vastly available PUPs and other pro-people models for water management,” Oluwafemi added.
Coal deposit in commercial quantity has been discovered in Sokoto State, a development observers describe as a boost to the Federal Government efforts to diversify the nation’s economy to agriculture and solid minerals.
Mining coal in a deposit
Other solid minerals so far discovered and awaiting exploration include phosphate (for making fertiliser), gold, limestone, gypsum, iron ore, copper, columbite, tantalite, zinc, and kaolin.
Speaking during a capacity building workshop on Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) for beneficial participation of state governments in mining, jointly organised by the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and the Sokoto State Ministry of Solid Minerals and Natural Resources Development, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal said the state government has already engaged a Chinese company to research on the available mineral resources, determine their locations as well as their commercial viability.
He said the company has presented the first phase of its findings and identified 20 varieties of solid minerals.
On coal, the government said the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN), otherwise known as Sokoto Cement and owned by the BUA Group, has started using the substance as a source of energy in operating its plant.
“BUA will use coal sourced from Sokoto to fuel the 40MW power plant being constructed at the factory. The new cement plant can use both coal and LPFO (Low Pour Fuel Oil), and will source its power needs from the power plant, with the excess generated power moved to the national grid,” BUA Founder, Abdussamad Rabiu, told reporters during a recent tour of the factory.
He added that BUA’s $300 million investment in the new cement plant is the single largest private sector-led investment in Nigeria’s North West and has the capacity of producing 1.5 million metric tonnes of cement per annum.
Leading online environment and development magazine, EnviroNews Nigeria, has launched an Android version of its mobile app.
The mobile app bears the EnviroNews brief logo
The mobile app makes it easy and convenient for its readers across the world to access the medium’s multimedia news and stories via their smartphones.
Commenting on the development, Publisher/ Editor, Mr. Michael Simire, said: “This is a vital first step forward in our determination to ensure a personalised digital experience. Just as we have it on the conventional site, the categories and focus areas are clearly indicated and easily accessible. Some of these are: Agric & Biotech, Cover, Climate Change, Human Settlement, Marine, Water & Sanitation, Sustainable Development, TV Reports, and Science & Tech.
“Our readers and visitors are central to how we develop these services, and their feedback has been important in the creation of the mobile app. Technological innovation is key in the development of the industry and, as a leading online environment and development magazine, the desire is to be able to provide a platform that makes reading pleasurable for everyone.”
The new app is available as “EnviroNews” via the Google Play Store and is free to download.
According to Simire, the IOS version of the mobile app will follow shortly.
A campaign against crude oil theft mounted this year by The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) has highlighted the dangers of crude oil theft and sabotage of pipelines to more than 40 communities in the four local government areas in Ogoni land – Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme.
Crude oil theft in the Nigerian Niger Delta region
“This public service campaign is a clarion call to people involved in crude theft in the Niger Delta, not only in Ogoni land, to stop destroying their land and heritage through pipeline vandalism,” said Osagie Okunbor, SPDC Managing Director and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria.
SPDC has reached nearly 150 community units in Ogoni land since it commenced the targeted campaign in 2014, in response to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report on oil pollution in the area which recommended public sensitisation on the environmental devastation from pipeline vandalism and illegal crude oil refining.
The grassroots campaign is implemented in partnership with officials of the Rivers State Government, the National Oil Spill Detection and Remediation Agency (NOSDRA) and community leaders who engage chiefs and elders, youth and women groups as well as opinion and religious leaders among many others. The programme involves open-air meetings which are preceded by publicity campaigns on the electronic media.
“The central message of the campaign is that the criminal act of crude oil theft threatens present and future generations,” said Vincent Nwabueze, Manager of SPDC’s Ogoni Restoration Project.
He adds: “The 2016 campaign which held between June and October was very successful. Working with an Ogoni-based NGO, we recorded impressive turnout in all the campaign centres with many community people agreeing with the theme of ‘danger for all and benefit for a few’ that crude oil theft represents. In a visible demonstration of government support, the Rivers State Commissioner for Chieftaincy and Community Affairs personally led one of the campaign sessions. We are grateful for the support of the Government and the communities, and hope that people will take the messages to heart and stop exposing lives and the environment to danger through crude oil theft activities.”
In addition to the campaign against crude oil theft, SPDC commenced a separate LiveWIRE programme for Ogoni land in 2014 with the objective of providing alternative means of livelihood for youths in the area. The pioneer set of 105 beneficiaries graduated in February 2015, and more than 70 per cent of them are now successful business owners and employers of labour.
A United Nations expert has urged the authorities in Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos, to ensure the 2017 budget improves funding for water and sanitation access for the estimated 21 million residents.
Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and sanitation, Léo Heller. He describes the budget discussion as an opportunity for Lagos to take steps towards delivering to the people their rights to water and sanitation
The comments from the Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and sanitation, Léo Heller, come after the State Governor presented the proposed budget to the Lagos House of Assembly.
“Government reports indicate alarmingly high deficits in the sector, representing clearly unacceptable conditions for millions of the megacity’s residents,” said Mr. Heller.
He added: “The discussion of the annual budget is a great opportunity for the city to take steps towards delivering people their rights to water and sanitation.
“It is profoundly worrying how many millions of people are exposed to this level of vulnerability.
“There is no question that the city’s water and sanitation sector has deteriorated to this point because of the way it has been managed for many years.”
Mr. Heller is urging the government to consider alternatives such as boosting the effectiveness of the public service provider, including by adopting appropriate financing schemes and responsibly reducing water losses.
“For more than a decade, the Government has adopted a hard-line policy according to which the solution would seem to only attract private capital, notably via public-private partnerships (PPPs). Numerous civil society groups have urged the Government to guarantee their right to participate in these processes,” the Special Rapporteur said.
“I believe that a participatory process is key to finding an adequate solution. But the alternatives proposed by civil society are not given meaningful consideration, while negotiations to initiate PPPs between public authorities and private investors have reportedly occurred in secret,” he noted.
Philip Jakpor of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) stated: “Lagos continues to grow and residents’ access to water and sanitation is worsening. Current estimates suggest that only 10% of the population has access to water supplied by the state utility, LSWC.
“Many residents desperate for water now resort to drilling their own boreholes, but this practice has grave environmental and health consequences, especially when the holes are dug near soakaways that could contaminate the water. Others have to pay exorbitant prices to private vendors, who are often unregulated and provide water with no safety guarantees.”
Earlier this year, the Special Rapporteur contacted the Government of Nigeria to seek clarification about the water and sanitation situation in Lagos and has reportedly not received a response thus far.
Mr. Heller’s comments, adds Jakpor, echo the arguments of the Our Water Our Right coalition made up of Nigerian civil society, labour unions and global rights groups led by ERA/FoEN.
Radio reports archives The success of a festival is not only measured by the number of people that participated in it and the volume of eating and drinking; but also the arrangements put in place to clean up the venue of the occasion.
This may as well apply to the Christmas and New Year celebrations.
What facilities are put in place by the governments of the respective states and local governments in the country to ensure that the masses do not swim in filth while celebrating the yuletide?
Over to Correspondent Innocent Onoh tries to find answer to the poser in his report on the Challenges of waste disposal in Lagos this Yuletide.
President Barack Obama of the United States on Tuesday, December 20 2016, moved to solidify his environmental legacy by withdrawing hundreds of millions of acres of federally owned land in the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean from new offshore oil and gas drilling.
President Barack Obama of the United States addressing leaders at COP21 in Paris, France
Obama used a little-known law called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect large portions of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in the Arctic and a string of canyons in the Atlantic stretching from Massachusetts to Virginia. In addition to a five-year moratorium already in place in the Atlantic, removing the canyons from drilling puts much of the eastern seaboard off limits to oil exploration even if companies develop plans to operate around them.
The announcement by the White House late in the afternoon was coordinated with similar steps being taken by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to shield large areas of that nation’s Arctic waters from drilling. Neither measure affects leases already held by oil and gas companies and drilling activity in state waters.
“These actions, and Canada’s parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on earth,” the White House said in a statement. “They reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region’s harsh conditions is limited.
White House officials described their actions to make the areas off limits to future oil and gas exploration and drilling as indefinite. Officials said the withdrawals under Section 12-A of the 1953 act used by presidents dating to Dwight Eisenhower cannot be undone by an incoming president. It is not clear if a Republican-controlled Congress can rescind Obama’s action.
“There is a precedent of more than half a century of this authority being utilized by presidents of both parties,” a White House aide said. “There is no authority for subsequent presidents to un-withdraw. . . . I can’t speak to what a future Congress will do.”
“The U.S. is not acting alone today. Canada is acting to put an indefinite stop to activity in its waters as well,” the aide said. “With Canada, we send a powerful signal and reinforce our commitment to work together.”
David Rivkin, an attorney for the Baker and Hostetler law firm who served on the White House Counsel staffs of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, disagreed with the assertion that the decision cannot be overturned. “Basically I say the power to withdraw entails the power to un-withdraw,” Rivkin said, “especially if you determine the justification for the original withdrawal is no longer valid.”
A legal fight would likely follow, Rivkin said. But “it’s not clear why Congress would want to give a president tremendous authority operating only one way.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) responded sharply on Twitter: “Yet another Obama abuse of power. Hopefully, on[e] that will be reversed…exactly one month from today” after Trump’s inauguration. Cruz closed his tweet with a hashtag: “Taking away Obama’s pen and phone.”
U.S. and Canadian officials have negotiated for months to reach a joint understanding on how to manage adjacent areas in the ocean in an effort to make the new protections as sweeping and politically durable as possible. Meanwhile, advocacy groups lobbied Obama to ban oil and gas leasing in the Arctic entirely.
Obama already invoked the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to safeguard Alaska’s Bristol Bay in 2014, and again last year to protect part of Alaska’s Arctic coast. The president has protected 125 million acres in the region in the last two years, according to a fact sheet issued by the White House.
The Beaufort and Chukchi seas are habitat for several species listed as endangered and species that are candidates for the endangered species, including the bowhead whale, fin whale, Pacific walrus and polar bear. Concern for the animals has heightened as the Arctic warms faster than anywhere else in the world and sea ice the bears use to hunt continues to melt.
The underwater canyons protected by the president cover nearly 4 million acres across the Atlantic continental shelf break, “running from Heezen Canyon offshore New England to Norfolk Canyon offshore the Chesapeake Bay,” according to a separate fact sheet.
They are widely recognised as major biodiversity hotspots that are critical to fisheries. The canyons provide deep water corals used by a wide array of fish. The area also provides habitat “for . . . deepwater corals, deep diving beaked whales, commercially valuable fishes, and significant numbers of habitat-forming soft and hard corals, sponges, and crabs,” the White House said.
The American Petroleum Institute denounced the decision. “The administration’s decision to remove key Arctic and Atlantic offshore areas from future leasing consideration ignores congressional intent, our national security, and vital, good-paying job opportunities for our shipyards, unions, and businesses of all types across the country,” said Erik Milito, the group’s Upstream director.
“Our national security depends on our ability to produce oil and natural gas here in the United States,” Milito said. “This proposal would take us in the wrong direction just as we have become world leader in production and refining of oil and natural gas and in reduction of carbon emissions.”
Contradicting the White House’s statement, Milito said George W. Bush removed previous 12-A withdrawal areas with a memorandum and made all but marine sanctuaries available for leasing. “We are hopeful the incoming administration will reverse this decision as the nation continues to need a robust strategy for developing offshore and onshore energy,” he said.
But a wide range of conservation groups hailed the decision. League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski called it “an incredible holiday gift,” saying that “an oil spill in these pristine waters would be devastating to the wildlife and people who live in the region.”
Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, called it “a historic victory in our fight to save our Arctic and Atlantic waters, marine life, coastal communities and all they support.” Carter Roberts, president and chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund, applauded what he called “a bold decision” that “signals some places are just too important not to protect.”
Oil production in the Arctic represents a tenth of one percent of the nation’s oil production overall, the White House said. The area is so sensitive and so remote that the economics of exploration is costly.
Shell, which said in September 2015 that it would shelve drilling plans after spending $7 billion and not finding significant amounts of oil, still has one remaining lease in the Chukchi Sea where it drilled a well earlier last year. Shell is also part of a joint venture with Italian oil giant ENI and Spanish firm Repsol in the Beaufort Sea that holds 13 leases.
Shell held other leases in the Beaufort Sea, which the company transferred to the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., a company belonging to the Native Americans in the region.
An earlier plan to allow limited drilling off the Atlantic coast was shelved after state governments along the southern Atlantic coasts – including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia – expressed worries over the effect on their beaches, tourist industry and environmentally sensitive marsh.
The Navy also objected. The Pentagon provided Interior with a map “that identifies locations … areas where the (Defense’s) offshore readiness activities are not compatible, partially compatible or minimally impacted by oil and gas activities,” department spokesman Matthew Allen said. The map included nearly the entire proposed drilling area.
Live training exercises are conducted off the Atlantic coast, “from unit level training to major joint service and fleet exercises,” Allen said in a statement. “These live training events are fundamental to the ability of our airmen, sailors, and marines to attain and sustain the highest levels of military readiness.”
The Obama administration eventually closed the Atlantic to drilling for five years.
President-elect Donald Trump could counter Obama’s plan with his own five-year plan, but even so it would be years before drilling could start.
The president-elect’s authority to undo a permanent prohibition is unclear. But Congress, controlled by Republicans, could move to rescind the withdrawal of federal lands from oil and gas exploration.
The Public Private Partnership (PPP) Pole, of the Steering Committee for the 22nd session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22), led by Saïd Mouline, Director of the Moroccan Agency for Energy Efficiency (AMEE), organised and executed several campaigns to raise awareness to the general public on environmental challenges and innovative technologies and solutions in favor of the climate, to find direct and indirect financing necessary for the organisation of COP22 and to promote the role of the private sector and its ability for innovation in the fight against climate change.
COP 22 venue in Marrakech, Morocco
197 companies exhibited at COP22
In order to allow the public sector and public institutions to exhibit their innovative technologies and initiatives against the effects of global warming, the PPP pole put in place an “Innovation and Solutions” area in the Green Zone of Bab Ighli, the conference site for COP22. Several exhibition themes related to climate change were selected: transportation, water, energy, climate finance, circular economy, building and construction, adaptation and agriculture as well as regions and countries. A total of 197 exhibitors (144 companies/groups of companies, 39 public and 17 financial institutions) were selected and exhibited in a space equaling 15,000 m2. The private sector was represented at the highest level during COP22 with more than 200 CEOs and managing directors.
No fewer that 29 nationalities, across five continents, were represented and nearly 150 conferences were organised in the innovation and solutions space during COP22.
As for financing COP22, the rental of space as well as financial partnerships and in-kind allow for the mobilisation of around 210 million dirhams.
Over 150 projects were labelled
Contributing to the success of COP22, the mobilisation of non-state actors in the fight against climate change was demonstrated by 1,170 label requests with 150 being selected. The labeling process was undertaken with the COP22 Scientific Committee
Highlights:
43 heads of international management signed the “Marrakech Declaration”, on November 16 at the High Level Business Summit on Climate Change, led by the General Confederation of Moroccan Businesses (CGEM), through which they committed to fight against the effects of climate change.
Launch of international initiative on energy efficiency (IEEI) to promote the sharing of best practices in terms of energy efficiency and renewable energy to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Two events held on the margins of COP22 supported by the PPP pole
Cycling for the climate: the Spanish company Iberdrola was behind the initiative for a carbon neutral bicycle trip involving 15 participants from Seville, through Rabat, to Marrakech
Formula E Grand Prix, first time a stage of the world championship in this category took place in Africa
The PPP pole, in collaboration with CGEM and the European Union allowed for 20 startups from Africa to exhibit in the Green Zone, exhibiting the innovation potential from southern countries
In the Kasigau Corridor region of East Kenya, generations of cattle grazed the fields into dust and labourers clear-cut much of the dryland forest for firewood and farmland – because survival was at stake. To reverse deforestation and spur progress there, Wildlife Works, a company that helps local landowners in the developing world monetise their forest and biodiversity assets, created a wildlife sanctuary on 30,000 hectares. Since 1998, when the project began, many species are said to have returned.
The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project provides income to the community and local landowners for protecting their land
As important as protecting the dryland forest and restoring its original biodiversity is revitalising the community that depends on the forest for its food and livelihoods. The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) project – managed under the United Nations’ climate change mitigation mechanism and implemented by Wildlife Works – is poised to help the people of the region become self-sufficient.
Boosting the effort is the groundbreaking $152 million Forests Bond from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is a member of the World Bank Group.
Launched in October, IFC’s Forests Bond will support training and employment for women of the Kasigau Corridor, refurbishment of classrooms at a local school, and the creation of a partnership that will harvest and store rainwater and provide water up to six months a year for a village of more than 10,000. The Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project has the support of regional leaders like Chief Kizaka of Kasigau Location in the Voi District, who represents over 12,000 people.
“Carbon money helps us meet basic needs and improve our lifestyle,” he said.
A “Global First” in Climate Finance
The Forests Bond, designed to protect forests and deepen carbon-credit markets, is an innovation in climate finance. Investors are given the choice between a cash or carbon-credit coupon linked to the Kasigau Corridor project. These credits are generated from avoided deforestation and issued under the Verified Carbon Standard.
A carbon credit is a tradeable certificate or permit representing the right to emit one ton of carbon dioxide or another greenhouse gas. Investors choosing the carbon credit coupon can retire the credits to offset corporate greenhouse-gas emissions or sell them on the carbon market. To pay investors a carbon credit coupon, IFC will buy carbon credits from the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project.
IFC’s Commitment to Climate
Protecting forests is critical to keeping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius, while protecting vital ecosystems and offering an opportunity to boost rural livelihoods. But each year, 5.5 million hectares of tropical forests are deforested – an area approximately the size of Costa Rica. Investments of $75 billion to $300 billion will be needed in the next decade to reduce deforestation by 50 percent. Much of this has to come from the private sector. IFC’s Forests Bond, it was gathered, demonstrates the power of innovative capital-market mechanisms to unlock private sector funds for forest protection.
The 2017 UN Climate Change Conference – specifically the 23rd Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – will take place from 6 to 17 November at the World Conference Centre in Bonn, Germany, the seat of the Climate Change Secretariat. The Conference will be convened under the Presidency of Fiji.
A view of the atrium in the World Conference Centre Bonn (WCCB) in Germany, venue of COP23
The Conference will comprise sessions of:
the Conference of the Parties (COP23);
the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP13);
the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA1.2);
the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI47);
the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA47);
the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA).
The UNFCCC secretariat, as host of the Conference, says it is working very closely with the Government of Germany, the State of North-Rhine Westphalia and the City of Bonn to make all the necessary arrangements.
Information on the venue, the rental of office space for delegations and space for events, registration for the conference and other services provided will be made available in due course, the UN body adds.
Information on hotel reservations in Bonn and the region will be posted in the coming days once final contact details are established, UNFCCC states further.
For initial information on the conference venue, the City of Bonn and the region, as well as general accommodation options available in and around Bonn, World Conference Centre Bonn and City of Bonn are vital links.
