The Lagos State Government has urged residents to desist from dumping refuse in drains to prevent flooding.
Flood in Lagos: The city of Lagos is susceptible to flooding from rainfall
Mr Oluwatoyin Adeni-Awosika, the Director, Public Enlightenment and Community Relations in the state’s Ministry of Information and Culture, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday, April 17, 2018.
He said the state government had begun maintenance work on drainage channels ahead of the rainy season.
“The state government has embarked on a number of strategies aimed at enlightening the citizenry on the need for them to be weary that the rainy season is coming.
“They should be weary of doing many things that cause flooding such as building on drainage channels, dumping of refuse in drainage channels, pot holes and what have you.
“So government continued to educate everyday telling people; please bag these refuse very well and dump at appropriate places.
“Don’t dump in drainage channels; don’t drop in rivers; don’t dump in the wrong places; we all will suffer the environmental and medical implications.
“So let us all do the right thing; put your refuse in appropriate places.
“It is a collective thing. Government is doing its own part; the citizenry too equally do their own part; then we all will enjoy.
“Government will enjoy; you too will enjoy the dividends of democracy.
“We started with jingles early in the year to sensitise people.
“We’ve been going round different parts of the state on the need for everybody to know we should prevent flooding.
“Not that when the flood comes, we start pushing blames.’’
Adeni-Awosika said the ministry was also working closely with market leaders, the academia, civil society groups, and clerics towards sensitising residents to the measures they should take to prevent flooding.
Lagos State Government on Monday, April 16, 2018 said that it would need a minimum of five engineered landfill sites and 25 transfer loading stations to tackle environmental issues.
Engineered Landfill Site / EcoPark, Epe, Lagos
Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode made this known at the opening of the 52nd annual conference of Science Association of Nigeria (SAN) with the theme: “Science and Technology in Emerging Smart Cities and Sustainable Development.’’
The governor, who was represented by his Senior Special Adviser on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh, said that the government was committed to ensuring a smarter Lagos through infrastructure development.
“The environment issue is something we are confident will be a thing of the past in a few months’ time, with the ecosystem in place.
“We are working to see that we have engineering landscape sites around the state.
“Lagos needs a minimum of five engineered landfill sites and 25 transfer loading stations.
“The Cleaner Lagos Initiative is supposed to be a private sector-driven model that can help the state government to achieve its goal in the long run,” he said.
According to Ambode, the government does not have the financial strength to achieve the goal alone; it needs to involve partners.
“For the government to get the sites in place, it will cost government a minimum of $25 million,” he said.
He said that the state government would continue to create an enabling environment for private/public partnership.
“We know that, as a government, we are to create an enabling environment, and we are doing that.
“We are excited by what is going on today. The state has no other choice, but to continue embracing technological advancement.
“We appeal to Lagos residents to bear with us; the state will eventually be the best in Africa,” the governor said.
According to Ambode, the first engineered landfill site being built in the country is in Epe, Lagos.
Mr Sewanu Adebodun-Toplonu, Chairman, Local Organising Committee of the conference, urged SAN members to contribute their quotas to national development in line with the objectives of the association.
He said that it was paramount for scientists to take their rightful positions in the society, adding that science was the bedrock of economic growth and technological advancement.
The chairman said that the association would mobilise its members for robust scientific researches for the development of the state.
“I am very optimistic that through SAN’s technical backup, science officers under the employ of Lagos State and the organised private sector will give support.
“They will support government in providing quality services to achieve not just a smart city, but a low carbon smart city.
“Scientists will commence advocacy for resource efficiency and cleaner production centres across the country,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the conference will end on April 19.
Under nutrition, obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases are leading to catastrophic costs to individuals, to communities and to national healthcare systems in Africa. Every year, it is estimated that 11 million Africans fall into poverty due to high out-of-pocket payments for healthcare. According to experts attending a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, nutritional status, a critical component of a person’s health and wellbeing, must be recognised as a necessary building block towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa. Photo credit: pbs.twimg.com
“Not only do current figures mean we are unlikely to achieve the six global nutrition targets for 2025 but also the more ambitious target of ending all forms of malnutrition by 2030, which is integral to the goal of ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing for all, at all ages,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa. She added that “an exclusive focus of our energies – and finances – on curative services and related medical equipment, supplies and medicines to treat diseases that often are rooted in malnutrition will limit our chances of achieving health and wellbeing for all.”
In 2016, an estimated 59 million children in Africa were stunted and 14 million suffered from wasting – a strong predictor of mortality among children under five. That same year, 10 million were overweight; almost double the figure from 2000. In a 2014 report on Africa, it was estimated that 5 percent of males and 15 percent of females over 18 years of age were obese. The same report showed that 8 percent of adults above 25 years of age had diabetes and that is expected to double by 2035, while hypertension affected 46 percent of adults.
Poverty, hunger and disease are the main drivers of malnutrition in the African region and are linked with poor living conditions, lack of education, insecure livelihoods, and lack of access to basic services including health care and healthy, safe, nutritious foods.
“The burden of under-nutrition still persists across the African region, and today its impacts are being felt alongside overweight, obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases in many poor households,” said Dr Felicitas Zawaira, Director of the Family and Reproductive Health Cluster at the WHO Regional Office. “In recent years, we’ve rightly focused many of our energies on addressing hunger, but what we must recognise is that ending hunger does not guarantee improved nutrition,” she added.
Obesity and diet-related NCDs are largely the result of lifestyles characterised by limited physical activity and the consumption of unhealthy diets consisting of highly processed foods that are rich in calories, sugars, fats, salt and additives, but low in essential nutrients.
“When micronutrient deficiencies are taken into account, Africa is in fact experiencing a triple burden of malnutrition,” said Abdulaziz Adish, Deputy Regional Director and Nutrition Advisor, Nutrition International. “Micronutrient deficiencies, which often pass unnoticed, are responsible for reduced bodily resilience and resistance to infections. They compromise early child development, negatively affect reproductive health and reduce work rate capacity,” he added.
It is estimated that almost 50 percent of pregnant women in Africa suffer from anaemia, which increases death risk for themselves and their unborn babies, as well as incidences of low birth weight.
According to Dr Zawaira, “improving nutrition sustainably requires consideration of how to produce, deliver and ensure access to healthy diets and essential nutrients, not just greater quantities of food,” which is the vision of the Rome Declaration and Framework of Action endorsed by Ministers of Agriculture and Health at the Second International Conference on Nutrition in 2014.
“Tackling all forms of malnutrition for the achievement of UHC and the health-related SDGs requires remedial actions from multiple sectors and on many fronts,” Dr Zawaira added. These actions, she explained, include policies and community action to control the marketing and consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages (including breast milk substitutes); setting nutrition standards and dietary goals; nutrition labelling of processed foods; policies to promote consumption of healthy foods through taxation and subsidies; initiatives to promote consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and increased physical activity; social marketing campaigns and multi-component community-based interventions, among others.
Sector-specific recommendations by participants include:
The health sector should provide nutrition and health promoting interventions in the first 1000 days of life and throughout the life cycle; including screening, early diagnosis and treatment of malnutrition and associated diseases, as well as monitoring health outcomes.
The agriculture sector should play a critical role in climate-smart, sustainable, production of diversified nutrient-rich foods and promotion of family farming to help secure communities’ livelihoods.
The trade sector should contribute through enforcing food standards, food labelling and taxation to facilitate consumer access to healthy foods.
The education sector should support integration of nutrition and health promotion in the curriculum; school garden projects and school feeding; nutrition standards for school meals; controlling the marketing of unhealthy foods and non-alcoholic beverages in schools; and provide facilities for physical activity.
Food processors and manufacturers should play a key role in promoting healthy diets through food reformulation, fortification and appropriate labelling of food products.
Civil society and consumer organisations should continue looking out for the common good and holding stakeholders accountable for safeguarding public health.
Academia will be relied on to fine-tune the evidence of what works and how to reduce malnutrition.
The media should educate the public on how the choices they make when shopping for and consuming food translate in terms of nutritional wellbeing.
The experts warned that unless countries in Africa start enacting measures to tackle the double burden of nutrition affecting the continent, the road towards UHC will be marred with obstacles as will the aspiration to achieve health and wellbeing for all by 2030.
The WASH Coordination Project (WCP) has launched Nigeria’s first learning platform on urban water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), a Community of Practice (CoP) to facilitate the knowledge exchange within the country’s WASH sector.
WASH Manager USAID, Dr. Joachim Ezeji (left); Chief of Party, WASH Coordination Project (WCP) Timeyin Uwejamomere; Chairman, Community of Practice Steering Committee, Hosanna Dajan; Deputy Director / Acting National Project Coordinator of National Urban Water Sector Reform Project, Olabode Fashoyi, Dr Taibat Lawanson of the University of Lagos, Akoka, and others at the public presentation of Urban WASH Community of Practice in Lagos
To ensure the Community of Practice for Urban WASH in Nigeria is as informative and useful as possible, the WCP Team discussed its design with donors, government officials, development practitioners, utility management, civil society organisation representatives, and other interested stakeholders across the country over the span of a year.
In August 2017, Suleiman Adamu, the Minister of Water Resources, introduced the Community of Practice at the National Council of Water Resources, in Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria and inaugurated a 10-man Steering Committee comprising of sector professionals in various relevant field of expertise and an adviser to the Committee. In November 2017, with the support of the Steering Committee, the WASH Coordination Project made the CoP Online Learning Platform publicly available.
The CoP is focused on triggering improvements in four critical domains of utility operations: commercial viability; governance and social accountability; citizens’ engagement; and urban sanitation and hygiene. The website, which can be found at this link: https://www.urbanwashcop.ng, includes a Research Centre with relevant WASH documents; a Practitioner’s Toolkit with a variety of tools for individuals involved in the provision of WASH services; and an Opportunities page with information on available jobs, tenders, as well as grants within the urban WASH sector in Nigeria; among numerous other resources on urban WASH.
According to Timeyin Uwejamomere, the WCP Chief of Party, utilities that have successfully implemented reforms and, as a result, are closer to offering sustainable services partly attribute this achievement to peer-to-peer learning and knowledge development support. He, therefore, hopes the CoP will serve as a learning platform for WASH practitioners to help Nigerian water utilities fast-track the implementation of needed reforms.
In his speech, Dajan Hossana, the chairperson of the COP Steering Committee, noted that the primary purpose of the website is to provide readily available and accessible information on best practices in the WASH sector though the framework of a self-sustaining, demand-driven, and locally appropriate platform to foster dialogue among practitioners to accelerate reforms in the sector.
“The website serves as a resource center for Nigerian urban WASH stakeholders by providing a platform for disseminating practical and relevant information on WASH development, tools, and best practices,” he said.
The WCP is a two-year project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Nigeria. The project seeks to achieve the dual benefits of improved health and well-being for Nigerians through increased and more financially sustainable access to WASH services, and to build the confidence of the public in the government’s ability to deliver basic services in Bauchi and Kaduna states. The Development Innovations Group, a U.S.-based firm with offices in Kaduna and Bauchi, is the prime implementer of the WCP.
The WCP will support the maintenance of the website until the project ends on October 31, 2018, at which time a Nigerian entity will become responsible for maintaining the online Community of Practice (CoP), while the Steering Committee (SC) continues to provide oversight on operations. In addition to supporting the WCP to make the CoP website available to the public, the Steering Committee has also worked with the WCP to develop a strategy and manual that will guide the operations of the Community of Practice.
Fifty-three heads of states converged on London, the United Kingdom, on Monday, April 16, 2018 for the biennial Commonwealth and Heads of Governments Meeting (CHOGM), a gathering that should have taken place in Vanuatu before it was hit by Cyclone Pam in 2015.
President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria and British Prime Minister Theresa May meet as CHOGM kicks off, on Monday, April 16, 2018
The meeting, which comes to a close on Wednesday, April 18, marks the start of a countdown towards 2020, when countries from around the world are expected to raise their climate ambition in line with the Paris Agreement. Leaders from Pacific Islands, Africa and South East Asia are expected to demand more action from global leaders as climate impacts start to bite across the planet.
The head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II, on Monday unveiled her plan involving all 53 Commonwealth members to radically accelerate global forest cover, a vital step in protecting biodiversity and tackling climate change. The UK, Canada, New Zealand and Fiji are all expected to underline their commitment to accelerating climate action during the summit.
Commonwealth member states – who are blessed with millions of square kilometres of ocean – also will announce new plans to protect the seas from plastic pollution and highlight the impact climate change is having on fish species and ocean acidification.
The week of the CHOGM began with four forum events, bringing together representatives from the worlds of business, civil society and government.
The forums offer an opportunity for Commonwealth dialogue and provide a platform for wider debate of some of the key issues and challenges, in advance of discussions by leaders at CHOGM.
For the first time, all of the Commonwealth Forums are coming together in the same venue on a single day to discuss shared agendas, forge important new partnerships and celebrate common interests.
Organisations from around the globe will on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 host a forum to share their experiences on issues relating to Veolia’s global water operations. The organisation holds its annual shareholders’ meeting in Paris, France on Thursday.
The offices of SEEG, the power and water utility operated by Veolia
Veolia Environment S.A., branded as Veolia, is a French transnational company with activities in four main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities – water management, waste management, transport and energy services.
“The corporation’s water projects have been plagued by allegations of corruption, labour and human rights abuses, corner cutting, negligence and failed promises spanning multiple continents. These issues not only have a negative impact on development and democracy, but also carry real financial implications. While Veolia will be quick to gloss over such concerns, the corporation is under investigation in multiple countries and is facing numerous class action lawsuits, among other major issues that present real risk for investors,” disclosed Philip Jakpor of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN).
The virtual forum will feature people from cities that have been affected by the water projects, who are currently opposing pending projects, and organisations monitoring Veolia’s global activities will detail the reality of Veolia’s water operations.
Participants from countries with documented issues of human rights abuses with Veolia will join the virtual press briefing from the United States, India, Nigeria and Paris, it was gathered.
From Flint, United States, Gina Luster of Flint Rising will speak on the city’s water crisis blamed on Veolia, while Alyson Shaw of the Pittsburgh United and the Our Water Campaign will speak from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jammu Anand of Nagpur Municipal Corporation Employees Union will join the call from Nagpur, India, while Jean-Luc Touly of the Association pour le Contrat Mondial de l’Eau, Front Républicain d’Intervention Contre la Corruption will join from Paris, France.
Jakpor of the ERA/FoEN will speak on water privatisation plans by the Lagos State Government and the aversion of Lagosians to the takeover of the public water utility company by Veolia, Abengoa and Metito.
Shayda Naficy of Corporate Accountability will also join from Boston, Massachusetts.
According to a statement by Taylor Billings, press officer at Corporate Accountability, Veolia is facing scandals in multiple continents.
The death of 11 lions in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park left many conservationists perturbed on whether the East African country was making progress in saving the big cats.
Lions
As news filtered in on Thursday, April 12, 2018 that three lionesses and eight cubs were poisoned to death by some elements in a nearby community in retaliation for the killing of their cattle, Ephraim Kamuntu, minister of tourism, rushed to the park, located in the western part of the country.
Since then, three suspects have been arrested and the government is threatening to evict the Hamukungu fishing village from the precincts of the park.
“Government made a mistake to allow pastoralists in this sanctuary. You are all suspects as per now until you bring us those who keep killing our icons,’’ Kamuntu said, according to the Daily Monitor on Monday, April 16, 2018.
This is not the first time lions are being killed by cattle-keeping communities around the national park.
In 2007, 13 lions were poisoned and, in 2010, eight were killed.
This time around, Kamuntu said, the government is not going to handle the perpetrators softly, warning that if the community does not identify them, the government may resolve that the community stops raring cattle.
In the meeting convened by Kamuntu, the community reasoned that they have lost several animals to lions.
The pastoralists argued that despite reporting to the authorities, no action is taken.
The United Nations says lions and other charismatic predators are facing many and varied threats, which are mostly caused by human activities.
Overall, their populations are declining at a disturbing rate due to loss of habitat and prey, conflicts with people, poaching and illegal trade.
Figures from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) showed that populations of African lions have declined by 42 per cent over the past 20 years.
In Uganda, a recent census put the country’s count of lions at 420, compared to 1,000 in 1990.
UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in a statement issued in commemoration of the World Wildlife Day on March 3, called for personal action to help ensure the survival of the world’s big cats and all its precious and fragile biological diversity.
According to Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), a state agency charged with conservation, the country gets 50 per cent of the revenue from Queen Elizabeth National Park from visitors who come to see lions.
The agency says out of 10 tourists who visited the park, five want to see lions, meaning that half of the 6 billion shillings ($1.7 million) comes out of lions.
Lions and other big cats like cheetahs and leopards are an important tourism attraction in Uganda.
They are second only to the mountain gorilla as the most-sought-after species.
Tourism is Uganda’s main foreign exchange earner.
It contributed up to 1.35 billion dollars to the export basket in 2016.
Minister Kamuntu says there is need to create awareness about the value of wildlife, especially for the lions, cheetahs and leopard that are under major threat.
The public needed to work toward preserving wildlife, as it provides enormous opportunities, especially in tourism, he said.
Organisations like the Uganda Carnivore Programme are helping to create awareness on the protection of the cats, especially among communities around Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Working with the UWA and Makerere University, Uganda Carnivore Programme conducts school and community outreaches.
On the other hand, the government has enacted policies and laws that promote wildlife conservation.
In one of the proposed laws, if one is found guilty of poaching and illegal wildlife trade, they would be faced with a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The country has also established a dedicated court to deal with wildlife-related crimes.
Some 40 countries of the Asia-Pacific region have called for increased action in the area of agriculture to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a focus tackling the effects of climate change.
Jose Graziano da Silva, Director General of the FAO
A Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Nadi, Fiji brought together governments, technical officials, and industry members who emphasised the importance of the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework in guiding future actions for agriculture, food security and nutrition in the face of climate change.
“To win the fight against hunger, we must address climate change,” said FAO Director-General, José Graziano da Silva. “I am grateful the conference has recognized that we must promote the adaptation of agriculture to climate change, especially in relation to poor family farmers, fisher folks and pastoralists.”
Graziano da Silva pointed out that, in order to achieve this, developing countries in particular must take advantage of available international funding bodies such as the Green Climate Fund to promote adaptation measures.
The FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific is convened every two years to seek guidance from Member Nations on FAO’s program of work for the next two years.
This year, member countries supported FAO’s efforts to help family farmers build more resilience against climate change and to improve statistics that can guide policies and actions.
One of the primary objectives of the conference was to look into how to reduce the contribution of agriculture to greenhouse emissions, and to integrate climate change adaptation and mitigation into strategies for agriculture and rural development.
Changing weather extremes threaten the livelihoods of the Fijian people—implicating the island’s ecosystems. Saltwater intrusion from coastal flooding destroys farmland, disrupting the supply of staples in the Fijian economy and forcing communities to migrate to safer ground.
The member countries of the 34th Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific also put out a call for action to make progress on the 2030 Sustainable Development agenda, including the improvement of nutrition and the eradication of all forms of hunger.
Director-General Graziano da Silva, had earlier called upon the FAO Member Nations of Asia-Pacific to step up their actions in the fight against hunger, given that the region still has 490 million hungry people in their midst, “more than any other region,” he said.
“It is encouraging to see that the conference has agreed that we need to bring about sustainable intensification of agriculture in order to feed the region’s growing populations,” said the FAO Director-General.
More work and stronger partnerships are necessary if the region – indeed the world – is to meet the 2030 Agenda of achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 13, taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a loan equivalent to $20 million to Santa Clara Medical Limited to finance the development of a hospital and referral clinics in Lagos, Nigeria.
Dr Abdu Mukhtar, AfDB’s Director of Industrialisation and Trade Development
The gesture, says the AfDB, aims at addressing the inadequate supply of quality secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities in Lagos State, Nigeria’s largest healthcare market, with only about 700 to 1,000 quality beds for a population of over 21 million people.
By supporting investment in healthcare infrastructure, the AfDB adds that it will help the Nigerian government develop human capital through improved service delivery in the healthcare system.
“This situation currently forces over 30,000 Nigerians to spend over $1 billion on medical tourism for specialty treatments overseas. Completing this project would allow the country’s healthcare sector to benefit from some of these resources,” said Dr Abdu Mukhtar, AfDB’s Director of Industrialisation and Trade Development.
He added: “This is an important development. In spite of recent improvements, Nigeria’s health infrastructure remains rudimentary and insufficient to cater to the country’s growing population.”
The hospital and referral clinics will be situated in different locations in Lagos and will, upon completion in 2020, provide a full spectrum of high quality general and specialist healthcare services at competitive prices. It is expected to have positive economic and social benefits for the city of Lagos and will create around 250 temporary jobs during the construction period and 600 jobs over its operation phase.
More importantly, it will significantly improve private healthcare services by offering quality general medical services in addition to specialty services such as orthopaedic, nephrology, urology, cardiology and neuro surgery that are largely unavailable in the country.
The Santa Clara Medical facility is being promoted by AXA Mansard, a member of the AXA Group, Africa Capital Alliance, IFC and Healthshare Health Solutions, the hospital management company of the project.
The facility will be a model case with strong demonstration effect for the development of the health infrastructure and services in Nigeria.
The investment, notes the AfDB, is consistent with its Private Sector Development Strategy to: improve Africa’s investment and business climate, especially in the healthcare sector that is currently under-served by the private sector, and increase access to social and economic infrastructure on the continent. The investment is said to be a reflection of the AfDB’s commitment to improving the quality of life of the African people – one of its five priority focus areas.
Cases of an infectious flesh-eating bug are on the rise in the southern Australian state of Victoria, with scientists unable to explain how it is spreading.
Untreated, the bacteria eats through skin and capillaries. Photo credit: Microbiology Australia
The Buruli or Daintree ulcer causes an infection which results in severe destructive lesions of the skin and soft tissue, according to a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, April 16, 2018.
The lesions can have devastating impacts on the sufferers including long-term disability, deformity, amputation and occasionally even death.
Victoria had 182 new cases in 2016, 275 in 2017 and 30 so far this year, medical researchers said in the study.
The cases are rapidly increasing in number, becoming more severe in nature and occurring in new geographic areas, the study found.
“Victoria is facing a worsening epidemic… and we don’t know how to prevent it,” said Daniel O’Brien, one of the authors and an associate professor at the University of Melbourne.
The researchers said efforts to control the disease have been severely hampered because the environmental reservoir and mode of transmission to humans remain unknown.
“It is difficult to prevent a disease when it is not known how infection is acquired,” the experts said in the journal article.
