Mzee Richard Kemei has been drinking clean water drawn from the nearby river of “Kipkororiet” since he was a young man over 50 years ago.
There is a dire need for drinking water. Photo redit: Benedict Tirop
The now elderly Kemei says his late mother Mrs. Priscila Sigilai and other women drawn from the nearby village of Keongo in Kapkugerwet ward in Ainamoi have been using the water from Kipkororiet River for the various household needs including drinking, washing utensils and bathing.
Coming from the Kipsigis community, who are largely associated with livestock keeping, the locals also utilized the clean water to quench the thirst of their animals.
“The river has served us very well in all our domestic needs for as long as we can remember,” he says.
They have also been conducting various sacred traditional ceremonies in this river.
However, Kipkororiet River, which is one of the major inflow streams for the Tionosoyiet wetland about one kilometre downstream, might very soon turn out to be a danger to the locals. This is due to the rapid pollution of the water through discharge of raw sewer by the mushrooming residential areas around the river system.
“Again, these days when we drink the water drawn from the river, it tastes and smells of the soap used for washing clothes. This makes it impossible to drink,” he adds.
He attributes the foul taste to the number of people who bathe and wash, which has quadrupled in the last 10 years.
Locals, including the family of Mzee Kemei, are now forced to draw water from other smaller streams which feed Kipkororiet River to avoid exposure to diseases which are associated with pollution by the raw sewerage waste.
Water is essential nutrient for livestock
The area Village elder, Peter Marindany, says the water has been some of the cleanest in the country but now the threat of pollution was a risk to the health of the locals.
The Kipkororiet River has also shrunk greatly in the last 50 years, an incident which the locals attribute to clearing of forests, planting of Eucalyptus trees and encroachment of the town which is expanding rapidly.
As a community leader, Mr. Marinday, urges the locals to apply for piped water from the Kericho Water and Sanitation Company (KEWASCO) which he says is safe and reliable.
The shrinking of Kipkororiet river is not an isolated issue, since a neighbouring river of Ainapbelek has also shrunk over five times its size in the last 20 years. The low volume flowing to the wetland, which acts as a reservoir, is a threat to the ecosystem of the region.
Mzee Kemei and many others of his generation might know the meaning of good river water but are not well conversant with wetland conservation.
A survey done by the Ministry of Environment says Kericho town represented one of the most significant diffuse sources of pollution to the wetland, with sewage entering the wetland in the lower parts of the wetland, downstream.
It identified key areas within the town from which pollutants are likely to be derived as the market place, located about 500m from the southernmost point of the wetland, and spans about five hectares.
“Some of the activities at the market include open air sale of fresh food, grains, used and new clothes and household utensils. In addition, there is a terminal for public transport vehicles in the middle of the market area. The market area and matatu terminal are therefore likely to be significant sources of nutrients, sediments and gross pollutants,” it says.
The informal cottage industrial site (Jua Kali) contains artisans who fabricate a wide range of items including cooking pots, farm implements, vehicle spare parts, furniture and collection of recyclable materials among other products. Again this site is likely to contribute significant amounts of sediments, and gross pollutants into the wetland.
Other pollutants to Tionosoyiet include effluent from the KEWASCO Sewage Treatment Plant which is discharged into the wetland.
The densely populated Nyagacho informal residential area hosts a wide range of economic activities such as shops, garages, food outlets and butcheries. The area is not sewered, and has no organised solid waste collection systems. Much of the area drains into the wetland.
To save the situation, over 4,000 wetland-friendly tree seedlings have been planted in the wetland by the government and other stakeholders and, once they grew, the wetland will be turned into a nature trail/arboretum for recreation purposes.
Alternative livelihood activities such as fish farming and bee keeping within the wetland has also been introduced.
A new study finds that howler monkeys scream louder when they have smaller testicles.
Howler monkeys
The study, published last week in the journal Current Biology, said that howler monkeys with deep roars — used to attract females, deter love rivals and scare off predators — tend to also have smaller testicles and a shortage of sperm compared to their peers.
Biological anthropologist Jacob Dunn and his team from Cambridge University wanted to see if there was a negative correlation between the size of a howler monkey’s vocal tract and the size of his testicles.
The team used 3D laser scanners to analyse a cup-shaped chamber in the howler monkey’s throat called a hyoid that acts an echo chamber.
Dr. Dunn said: “The results of our acoustic analyses show that howler monkeys produce roars at a similar frequency as tigers, which is far lower than we would have predicted from their body size, yet exactly what would be predicted from measuring their giant vocal folds’ which are three times bigger than in a human.”
Howler monkeys can be found in the forests of Central and South America and weigh roughly 15 pounds, but their growl can reach 128 decibels, which is equivalent to the roar of a tiger.
The researchers speculate that this is because howler monkeys want to give the impression that they are bigger than they actually are.
Dr. Dunn proposed: “It may be that investment in developing a large vocal organ and roaring is so costly that there is simply not enough energy left to invest in testes.
“Alternatively, using a large vocal organ for roaring may be so effective at deterring rival males that there is no need to invest in large testes.”
The study furthered that males with bigger hyoids had smaller testicles and lived in smaller social groups where there was a single male dominating a number of females.
Male howler monkeys with bigger testes and smaller hyoids most likely lived in bigger social groups and had to share partners.
Dunn said: “In evolutionary terms, all males strive to have as many offspring as they can, but when it comes to reproduction you can’t have everything.”
According to Charles Darwin, writing on how species’ evolutionary choices impact each other in “On the Origin of Species”: “The whole organism is so tied together that when slight variations in one part occur, and are accumulated through natural selection, other parts become modified.”
Environmental activist and erstwhile Chairman of the Cross River State Forestry Commission (CRSFC), Dr. Odigha Odigha, who was last Thursday morning arrested in his home in Calabar and released the following day, will report to the Police Headquarters in Diamond Hill on Monday (25 July, 2016) for further questioning.
Odigha Odigha delivering a speech after being decorated with the 2003 Goldman Prize in San Francisco, California
Odigha’s lawyer, who prefers to remain anonymous, made the disclosure at the weekend. He stated that the crusader, who is currently Chairman, Board of Trustees, Non-Governmental Coalition for Environment (NGOSE), is being accused of embezzling over N100 million during his tenure as CRSFC boss. Odigha is also said to be unable to account for money paid to him and officials to cover travel expenses.
His wife, Mrs. Evelyn Odigha, who had earlier accused the Cross River State Government of witch-hunting her husband over his anti-Superhighway stance, confirmed the lawyer’s statement, adding that he was released at about 7pm on Friday on bail.
According to a source, the allegation against Odigha was last week written and personally signed and given to the Police Commissioner by the Attorney-General of the state who, acting on the orders of the governor, instructed that Mr Odigha be arrested and prosecuted.
Observers have, however, condemned the arrest, saying that the governor made up the charges in the bid to silence those opposing the rather unpopular 260km Superhighway Project that is expected to slice through the Cross River National Park as well as a community forest at Ekuri.
But the Special Assistant on Media and Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ben Ayade, Christian Ita, described as ludicrous, attempts to link Odigha’s arrest and detention by the police to the governor.
Reacting to claims that the arrest and detention were due to the activist’s opposition to the construction of a 260km Superhighway, Ita said it was mischievous and preposterous for any right thinking person to make such an inference.
Ita, in a release, said: “Odigha was arrested by the police on the strength of a petition that alleged fraud and embezzlement whilst the self-styled environmental activist held sway as chairman of the state forestry commission.”
The African Water Facility (AWF) has committed 1.6 billion euros to implement water and sanitation projects in the region.
Suleiman Adamu, African Water Facility (AWF) Chairman and Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources
AWF Chairman, Suleiman Adamu, said this at the opening of the Sixth General Assembly of the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania on Thursday. Adamu said no fewer than 3.2 million people are expected to benefit from access to improved sanitation and over 2.8 million of them would have access to improved drinking water sources.
He said the AWF was ambitious in its goal towards developing the region’s water sector to achieve water security in line with the Africa Water Vision 2025, which entails a sustainable access to a safe and adequate water supply and sanitation to meet the basic needs of all.
Adamu, who is also Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources, said these bankable projects are direct contributions to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He said already, member states have committed 922 million euros for the implementation of follow-up projects, which were relevant to total development of the sector. He said the AWF was committed to developing the sector, hence the focus on targeting cross-cutting issues of climate change, environment protection, gender and social equity.
“As part of its climate change strategy, the AWF prioritises projects in water harvesting, conservation, storage, recycling and re-use, and the use of renewable energy to power water stations and infrastructures”.
Adamu expressed hope that all member states would reach a consensus on all deliberations, thereby taking the region to its next level. He called on member states to pay up their pledges for project scale-up, saying by the end of 2018, an estimated 44 million euros would be needed.
“I wish to note that pledges made by African countries in 2012 have not been paid up, with the sole exception of Burkina Faso. We want to thank the Nigerian Government who recently committed 1million dollars, of which the disbursement is in process.”
Ms. Rhoda Tumusiime, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission, called for the implementation of bankable projects what would be implemented at national levels. Tumusiime urged member states to dialogue and agree on the direction that Africa needed to take, towards achieving sustainable development and water security.
According to her, AU’s dream is to have an Africa where there is an equitable and sustainable use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation and socio-economic development. The AU commissioner called for a baseline that would monitor progress to enable good reporting and promote effective communication of achievement on the sustainable development agenda by 2030.
Tanzanian Vice President, Ms. Samia Suluhu, called on African governments to overcome the existing challenges and take advantage of the available opportunities. “The Africa Union has put together agenda 2063, and water is one of the priorities. “Agenda 2063 is a call for action to all segments of African society to work together to build a prosperous and united Africa based on shared values and a common destiny.
“The Agenda strives to enable Africa remain focused and committed to the ideals envisaged in the context of a rapidly changing world,” Suluhu said. The AWF, managed by the African Development Bank, is a special fund to help member states achieve the objectives of the Africa Water Vision 2025 of equitable and sustainable development of its water resources.
The AMCOW, conveners of the general assembly, is expected to appoint a new Executive Secretary and a new president, following the expiration of the tenure of Mr Amadou Faye and Mr Bai-Mass Taal respectively.
One hundred and one Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have now submitted new national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs), setting out their national contributions to the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, a set of 20 global targets to be achieved by 2020.
The thirteenth meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties (COP13) will hold in Cancun, Mexico, from 4 – 17 December, 2016
The Aichi Biodiversity Targets are part of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, an overarching framework to protect biodiversity and enhance its benefits for people, approved by governments in 2010 and since recognised by the United Nations as setting the global framework for action on biodiversity.
“Reaching this milestone is an important achievement, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us,” said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary. “In the lead up to the thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13), being held this December in Cancun, Mexico, I encourage all countries that have yet to develop, revise or update their NBSAPs, to do so as soon as possible.”
In adopting the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity invited Parties to establish their own national targets, using the Strategic Plan as flexible framework, taking into account national needs and priorities, while also bearing in mind national contributions to the achievement of the global Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
The majority of NBSAPs include targets that reflect specific Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and many relate to targets on public awareness, pollution reduction, invasive alien species, protected areas, preventing extinction, access to and sharing benefits from genetic resources and sharing information and knowledge.
Several Parties have set targets surpassing the level of ambition set out in the Strategic Plan. For example:
Dominica: Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 – “By 2020, at least 20% of terrestrial, inland water and 15% of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem service, are conserved through comprehensive ecologically representative and well connected systems of effectively managed, protected areas and other means, and integrated intothe wider land and seascape.”
Finland: Aichi Biodiversity Target 5 – “By 2020, the loss of all natural habitats has been halted, and the degradation and fragmentation of natural habitats have been significantly reduced.”
The Gambia: Aichi Biodiversity Target 15 – “By 2020, ecosystem resilience and the contribution of biodiversity to carbon stocks has been enhanced, through conservation and restoration, including restoration of at least 50 per cent of degraded ecosystems.”
However, most of the national targets and/or commitments contained in the NBSAPs set lower levels of ambition than the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, or did not address all elements of the Target. For some Aichi Biodiversity Targets, such as those related to incentives, or the sustainable management of aquatic living resources, or reducing the pressures on ecosystems vulnerable to climate change and ecosystem services, many NBSAPs lacked associated national targets or commitments.
Analysis of national reports submitted by countries indicates that the majority of Parties have made progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets but at an insufficient rate to allow the targets to be met by the deadline unless additional actions are taken. The information in the national reports suggests that, for some Aichi Biodiversity Targets, about a third of Parties are on track to reach or exceed the level of ambition agreed globally. However, the progress is much lower for other targets. Overall, while progress is being made, it is at an insufficient rate, and additional efforts are required to achieve the ambition that Parties collectively agreed in the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.
Issues related to the implementation of the Convention, and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets will be the subject of discussion at the upcoming thirteenth meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties, to be held in Cancun, Mexico, from 4 – 17 December, 2016.
Growing up in Ghana, I learned how harsh the harmattan can be. The dry, dusty wind from the Sahara sweeps across West Africa from November to March. It brings dust storms that damage airways, eyes and skin, and sudden cold spells that can jeopardise vulnerable people. Now climate change threatens to magnify its threat, as the harmattan becomes more severe and less predictable, and carries more dust.
Kofi Annan, chair of the Africa Progress Panel
The evolving threat of the harmattan is a stark example of how we need to collaborate to protect public health from the effects of climate change. In the case of the harmattan, we need to make sure that accurate weather forecasts travel the “last mile” to reach people in the wind’s path so they can take shelter.
The overall threat that climate change poses to human health is huge. The 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change was unequivocal: “Climate change has the potential to undermine the last 50 years of progress in public health and development.”
Climate change will magnify and multiply existing health threats – in many cases dramatically. The effects will be felt hardest in low and middle-income countries in Africa and South Asia.
The Paris Agreement, which has focused unprecedented government attention on climate change, underlines the climate threat to health. Now we need a comprehensive programme of action that places people and their health at the centre of the global response to climate change.
The threat from the harmattan shows us a good place to start: by improving collection of climate and weather information, preparation of forecasts — including forecasts of dust and sand storms — and distribution of weather warnings to those who need them.
The Regional and Global Prediction Centres of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) have the supercomputers, models and experts needed to generate forecasts and distribute them to national authorities.
However, national weather services often don’t have the means to interpret and distribute forecasts to authorities, health professionals and the general public. It would take a small investment to provide these services with the equipment, communications, staffing, training and coordination they need to distribute accurate, timely warnings to some of the world’s poorest regions.
To protect people’s health from climate risks, we need to transform the way we approach such complex problems. That’s why the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the WMO are working together to help public health professionals become more “climate smart”, using climate and weather information to make the best decisions.
In the areas that need to become climate-smart the fastest, however, such as Africa and small island developing states, many health professionals are not yet using forecasts of droughts, floods or extreme temperatures – mainly because national weather services don’t have the funding, tools, training or institutional arrangements necessary to generate or share such forecasts.
How can we change this? We need to support weather and climate services in developing countries so that rather just collecting and providing data, they can become trusted suppliers of information and knowledge to the public.
To do that, they need access to data management and communication technologies that have already been tried and tested in other sectors, such as agriculture, where being climate-smart is becoming the norm.
We need to place greater emphasis on providing people with the timely information they need to protect themselves from extreme weather. Early warnings of hazards cannot only help communities respond and adapt to health risks posed by climate change, but also raise awareness of the causes and effects of climate change — and hence build public support for policies that strengthen resilience and mitigate against the impact of climate change.
Climate change is complicating the already enormous challenges of providing health services around the world — and those complications are felt most keenly in the world’s poorest countries. But I am confident that the growing awareness of the links between health and climate change will encourage health professionals, UN and government agencies, policy makers and the scientific community to come together to tackle these problems.
The last time the harmattan swept through Ghana, I was there to see it. The skies were dark for days. I thought of the people in remote and rural areas, caught unawares by sudden storms of sand and dust. We have the means to help them — not just now but in the future, when climate change makes things worse — so we should join forces to do everything we can.
By Kofi Annan (chair of the Africa Progress Panel. He is also a nobel laureate and former secretary general of the United Nations)
Corruption has been identified as one of the biggest problems that has affected the water sector not to function as expected on the African continent.
Executive Director of Water Integrity Network (WIN), Frank van der Valk
The vice, which according to Transparency International (TI) is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, is unfortunately very widespread taking many forms – the small scale corruption in bribing to get connection for which one is not entitled to or quicker.
Executive Director of Water Integrity Network (WIN), Frank van der Valk, during the second day technical session on “what policy shifts are needed to achieve Sustainable Development Goals” on the sideline of the Africa Water Week conference in Dar es Salaam said the sum of the small scale corruption together amount to pretty large amount of money.
Valk says people taking wrong decisions which are geared to specific interest for themselves or groups they represent rather than trying to solve the challenges that SDGs require is common in many African countries.
“Diversion of funds for purposes that they are not intended to, the appointment of people that are not qualified for the job because they are friends and appointing wrong people have continued to hinder the water sector,” Valk says. He suggested it is timely to now have a broad initiative led by institutions such as African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) who are the major players on the continent to work on increasing integrity in African countries.
According to him, African countries need capacity building at different stages both at government level and civil society organisations to help increase accountability in the sector.
Valk stressed the need for more involvement of civil society within major water programmes to ensure that those who execute the programmes are held accountable to the beneficiaries of the programme.
“We think that both governments and funders need to much more at the start of the project, include the right mechanisms to ensure the involvement of civil society and also to ensure proper financial management,” he says adding that financial management is lacking on the continent. Noting down some of the good examples of proper financial management on the continent, Valk says when proper mechanisms are in place before a project starts, positive results are usually visible.
In Burkina Faso, the building of the Ziga dam was documented where complete restructuring of the implementing organisation ONEA was carried out to ensure proper project delivery.
Kenya Water Trust is another good example of proper management because of proper mechanism in place to ensure project delivery.
He bemoaned the fact that too many people still do not enjoy their human rights to water and sanitation access and that the challenge is how to achieve it due to rampant corruption.
Water Integrity Network works with partners on the continent promoting water integrity and making sure governments take it serious as a subject.
Water integrity also develops tools to be used by governments and civil society organizations to strengthen the integrity in the organization and decision making.
Senegalese director of Environment and Sustainable Development Amadou Lamine Ndiaye said a new strategy for improving the management of water resources on the Senegal River basin has been launched. “Sharing good practices of different river basins helps to have shared interests and understanding of communities that are involved in the river basins.”
Civil society organisations under the banner of Africa civil society Network on Water and sanitation (ANEW) have called for an ambitious roadmap to achieving sustainable development goals on water and sanitation as necessary for national development plans of African countries.
CSOs have underlined the need for water security for all by 2030
Presenting a statement to African Governments through the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), ANEW’s Doreen Wandera highlighted the urgent need to prioritise water sanitation and hygiene if nations are to achieve Africa vision 2063 of optimising resources for all Africans, leaving no one behind.
“We call upon governments to ensure that the commitments of the Ngor declaration are aligned to the national level goal 6 implementation plans,” said Wandera. She further challenged governments to ensure a stronger role of civil society at various levels for coordination, communication and improved accountability.
Representing WaterAid CEO Barbara Frost, Head of Region Lydia Zigomo challenged governments and stakeholders to utilise the 6th Africa Water Week to agree on a roadmap that will ensure transformational change. “It cannot be business as usual; we need to increase the pace at all levels in order to reach everyone everywhere in Africa by 2030,” remarked Zigomo.
The 6th Africa Water Week (AWW-6), organised by African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), aspires to lay the building blocks for Africa to achieve the SDG 6 as well as other inter-linking SDGs connected with water resources management. The week represents a political commitment at the highest level for creating platform to discuss and collectively seek solutions to Africa’s water and sanitation challenges.
Countries in the Lake Chad region have been enjoined to double efforts to save the dwindling water body that is aggravating environmental degradation and migration in the region and consequently impacting on the social and economic wellbeing of the population.
Scientists say the Lake Chad has shrunken by 95 percent over the past 50 years. Photo credit: AP/Christophe Ena
Representatives of member countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), comprising Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, and Chad, who are attending the 6th Africa Water Week in Dar es Salam on July 19, 2016, agreed on the need to multiply strategies towards saving the lake.
“Countries from the lake Chad need to coordinate their multiple efforts, bringing in new stimulating perspectives to save this important lake on which the livelihood of millions of people hinges,” said Mana Boubakari, technical director of the Lake Chad Basin Commission at a side event on ground water management in the lake Chad basin.
He said restoring the water body would help reduce poverty, transform the lives of people in the region especially women and youths and drastically reduce the incentive to migrate to other regions.
Migration from the region according to reports have continued to surge as life becomes unbearable to the mostly agricultural and fishing population therein. The effect on the degrading land triggered by the shrinking lake on migration is just stark, experts say.
“We cannot ignore the huge unemployment of especially the youths in countries of the region who are left with no choice than seek for opportunities elsewhere,” said Professor Ibrahim Goni of the University of Maiduguri.
Statistics from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), estimate that over 60 million people are likely to migrate from the region by 2020 as the water from the lake continue to shrink.
The situation has been compounded by disturbing insecurity imposed by Boko Haram whose push for a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria has left hundreds of thousand people dead since 2009.
The surge in the marauding criminal activities of Boko Haram has led to increase poverty, loss of resource opportunities and breeding conflict and political instability. “Environmental breakdown and security threats in the Lake Chad Basin region especially in Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria is increasing and so we need additional efforts if we have to fight poverty, preserve peace and promote sustainable development,’’ noted Dr Fantung Wilson Yetoh, of the Institute of Mining and Geological Research in Cameroon at the side event discussion in Dar es Salam.
Members of the Lake Chad Basin Commission however say they were leaving no stone unturned with collective efforts to intensify security especially in the fight against the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram.
“A joint security effort is working to intensify security in the region,” Fantung Wilson said.
Development experts however agree that the campaign against degraded land like the case in the Lake Chad Basin region is the responsibility of all. They warn that the poverty situation may get to unbearable levels if nations continue to procrastinate than act forthrightly.
“The prospects of a land degradation neutral world will grow dimmer if we procrastinate. But it will shine brighter each time a country joins the campaign to restore degraded land and water bodies.” said Monique Barbur, UNCCD Executive secretary, in an address during the World Environment Day on Desertification on June 17, 2016.
She advised that land degradation neutrality should be a top policy goal for every nation that values freedom and choice.
The 6th Africa Water Week, organised by African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC) and other development partners, seeks accordingly, to lay pathways for Africa’s drive towards achieving the SDG 6, as well as other inter-linking SDGs rooted in water resources management.
The above acronym stands for Nigerian Institute of Town Planners. It is a professional association that was established in Nigeria in 1966 as an umbrella organisation for those who have attained the requisite academic qualification and certification in the study of Urban Planning (or Town Planning). Urban Planning is a specialised field of study about how a town or city or any hierarchy of human settlement is planned, improved, managed and sustained.
Luka Achi, Acting President of the NITP
The NITP registers its qualified members and provides a set of rules and regulations of professional conduct, which all members must comply to. Erring members of the Institute can be sanctioned for proven cases professional misconduct. An essential part of its many other functions is the advisory role it plays in terms of policy formulation governing urban and regional planning in Nigeria. It gives both solicited and unsolicited advice on planning to Government as and when the need arises.
Its regulatory arm is the Town Planners’ Registration Council (TOPREC), which was established under Decree No.3 of January 16, 1988. TOPREC as a Regulatory Council is statutorily empowered to determine who the town planner is and what standards of knowledge and skill he/she must acquire before the individual is registered to practice town planning in Nigeria. Part of the requirement for registration is the passing of a written examination to determine the competence of the prospective member.
The available statistics on the membership strength of the NITP and TOPREC as at 2014 are 4,070 and 3,370 respectively.
The above is a preface. The focus of this piece is related to the topic urging the NITP to change its tactics of rebranding.
This writer made a foray into the portal of the Institute online recently and read about a Colloquium held on January 14, 2016 at the prompting of one of its former National Presidents, a cerebral planner, who felt deeply concerned about “government attitude and low appreciation of urban and regional planning especially when decisions are taken, budgets are proposed and locational decisions are taken without considerations of urban and regional planning implications.” As further reported in the news item, “the forum wanted to debunk the argument that town planning activities have been socially repressive, benefitting the land and property owners and the educated and articulate middle class rather than the community.”
These are valid observations about the foibles of town planning practice in Nigeria. It is an indisputable fact that government regards planning as inconsequential in the decision making process, underfunds planning and hardly consults with professional planners for advice. Similarly, public dissatisfaction with government in general and with bureaucrats in particular extends to planners. The perception of planning and planners by the public domain is that of suspicion and antagonism. Planning and planners are two words the citizens “love and loathe” in Nigeria. The citizens yearn for livable cities, but they do not totally agree with the planning methods town planners adopt in an attempt to making Nigerian cities livable, functional and inviting. The citizenry see planners as usurpers wielding too much controlling power over the use of their property and setting too high a standard for physical development alien to the people’s culture.
Colloquium is good, but it is not a panacea to the problem at hand. It is just a brainstorming session where “planners talk to planners” repeating to themselves issues and problems of planning, which they already know and over-flogged. A typical example is this colloquium under reference. Except for the joggling of the words of all the topics discussed based on the various papers presented, which of these topics had not been exhaustively treated in the past or covered in a recent book titled “The State of Urban and Regional Planning in Nigeria” published by the NITP in 2014 during the tenure of the immediate past National President, Tpl. Steve Onu. The book was an excellent anthology. It covered every aspects of urban and regional planning in Nigeria from its history, practice, problems, education, collaboration, and ICT application to planning. The book ended with a long list of brilliant recommendations on “how to move planning forward” in order to overcome its various challenges. One wonders what has happened to these recommendations. Was there a follow-up by NITP to ensure the implementation of those forthright recommendations? Lack of continuity is always the bane.
Who is to blame for this seeming discord and lack of visibility?
It is an age-long internal problem. The approach chosen by the Institute in the past and now, to up the visibility of the profession in government circle and to earn respect/acceptability from the citizens is not working because the Institute has not devised a “creative way to tell planning story” to the government and the governed. Except in the case of Abuja, the nation’s seat of government, which was developed from scratch as a new capital city, there is not enough documentation about what planning has been able to achieve in terms of intervention and solution to planning problems plaguing most Nigerian cities and towns. It is still chaos all over the cities’ landscape. Where there is no written documentation, there won’t be dissemination of information. Town Planning is not abstract. It is better appreciated in practice than in theory. It is what people see and feel most especially when a planning decision affects or impacts their lives that they appreciate.
The NITP will be doing a lot of good to its reputation if it has a medium or reporting format for best practice in any area(s) where an action as a result of planning decision/intervention turns things around for the benefit of the people no matter how minute. An example that comes to mind is the introduction of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in 2008 by the Lagos State Government (LASG) as a strategy to improve public transportation in the Mega City; and to discourage the constant use of private automobile in a city of notorious traffic congestion. The BRT buses run on dedicated lanes, which enable the buses to move faster without being held up in the gridlock, a luxury that could not be enjoyed by car owners or other private-owned public transport danfo or molue buses. Since the BRT appeared on the streets of the mega city, ridership has been on the increase exponentially, while residents living in areas where there is no BRT service are demanding for it. The planning intervention caused a change of attitude among the residents to patronise the BRT as a means of public transportation because it is comfortable and faster. The LASG has received more than its fair share of public accolade for this planning initiative, which Lagosians can physically see and feel its impact.
The NITP needs to change tactics.
What is the ideal medium of information dissemination on the success stories of impactful planning intervention(s), policies, programmes, projects or planning best practices? Proper documentation is the answer. The NITP needs soft-sell periodicals in the form of magazines and ICT-based information focusing on different planning issues that could be of interest to the reading public, government officials, elected officials (politicians of different hues), students who are aspiring to be planners, civil organisations and of late, faith organisations whose activities along major highways are anti-planning.
APA as a golden best practice. The American Planning Association (APA) is a master in the game of planning advocacy, citizen engagement, and politics of planning, community outreach, peer mentoring and public law.
The Association has robust machinery for public relations in various forms. APA uses different kinds of publications to advance planning as a subject of public interest, to arrest the attention of all tiers of American governments (Federal, State and Local) on planning issues and to show its success stories in many a community in America, which it amply documents in print and aptly code named, Great Places in America and Great Communities in America.
Its flagship publication, Journal of American Planning Association (JAPA), focuses on applied research and technical planning issues. It is a journal strictly for professional planners as the targeted readership.
The other soft-read magazines which APA publishes are Planning, The Commissioner, Planning Advisory Service (PAS), Interact an e-newsletter, Zoning Practice and a host of online services where non-planners can source information on planning. APA also has multimedia services used in dissemination of vital information and telling illuminating stories by way of online planning tutorial, video, downloadable and still photographs. In addition to the afore-mentioned publications, APA has a well-stocked library where books on any subject matters of planning can be found…..principles/theories of planning, planning for tourism, transportation, green planning, smart growth, smart cities, sustainable cities, urban form, urban financing, management, zoning, comprehensive plan, planning laws and more allied topics. There is another library named Image Library which is stocked with visual images and pictures that could be used to communicate planning messages in graphic form for ease of comprehension by laymen and during plan presentation to elected Planning Commissioners who are not necessarily trained planners, despite their title appellation.
The Journal of Nigerian Institute of Town Planners remains what it is: An academic journal with its lingo used in disseminating intellectual message to professional town planners. It does little or nothing to arrest the attention of the reading public who are non-planners. Its outreach is therefore very limited and cannot serve public interest in planning.
Planning and politics. The practice of planning can be characterised in two ways. Intellectually, it is a process of problem-solving with rationality, following a set of basic steps in a planning process. Socially, it is a process of advice-giving. Any advice given or recommendation made by planners to solve a manifest planning problem is still to be considered by decision-makers who are usually elected public officials: politicians!! A recommendation good before the planner may not be so before the decision-makers because of vested interest and political expediency. This has been an age-long modus operandi and it is unlikely to change. The foreseeable future scenario is that, public policy will be in the purview of elected political leaders. If the NITP wants to be effective and have a voice in the corridor of power at all levels of government, the Institute must of necessity interact with the political process through lobbyists; and to embark on a road show of mobilizing the support of political actors at the grassroots (i.e. local council chairmen and the councilors). This same approach must also be in pari pasu with politicians in the National Assembly and the Houses of Assembly at the federal and state levels respectively.
Local planning hero as a story teller of what good planning can achieve. Nigeria is not bereft of adept, prolific and cerebral planners. They featured prominently in academics, in practice and in government and in scholarly paper writing, yet the country lacks a planning hero credited with an earth-shaking brain child project similar to what Jaime Lerner did to planning in the city of Curitiba, Brazil. Jaime Lerner, a planner/architect was the father of BRT concept. It was started in 1974 in Curitiba. Today, over 400 cities around the world (including Lagos mega city) have caught the bug of using the innovative transport system which originated from Lerner’s seminal mind. Though he was a planner of a small city in the Amazon jungle, he left a global planning legacy. Matt Tomasulo was an obscure urban designer/activist who in 2012 single-handedly launched the Walk (Your City) movement to showcase and boost community walkability in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. It is a civic platform of getting more people walking the street instead of driving the car. Like the BRT concept, many cities around the globe have emulated the idea in practice. We need a local planning hero or company who will be credited for a dramatic planning initiative or innovative, of national impact and importance!
Tactical urbanism as an option to change government attitude towards planning in Nigeria. The new terminology in the planning lexicon “tactical urbanism” is adroit in planning or maneuvering to accomplish a purpose. It is a way of forcing government to act. Those who indulge in the tactical planning approach saw the need to do certain thing that would benefit their communities, but due to government bureaucracy, such thing gets delayed or never gets done. The tacticians could be individuals or associations, who would take immediate action for public good without waiting endlessly for government intervention. Best practices of tactical urbanism in many areas of planning (policy change, city beautification, project implementation, law amendment, park creation, adaptive use, street reconditioning and legislative advocacy are abound in contemporary planning literature. The NITP as a planning association just has to be contemporary in its approach for seeking relevance in governance and public acceptability. As the saying goes, so many roads lead to Rome. Using any form of tactics that will achieve result is normal and acceptable.
By Tpl. Yacoob Abiodun (former Secretary, National Housing Policy Council; Urban Planner; Planning Advocate)
