A sneezing monkey, a walking fish and a jewel-like snake are just some of a biological treasure trove of over 200 new species discovered in the Eastern Himalayas in recent years, according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The walking fish was discovered in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a vibrant blue dwarf snakehead fish. It breathes air, and can survive on land for up to four days. The fish can even wriggle up to quarter of a mile over wet ground between bodies of water. Photo credit: pressexaminer.com
The vibrant blue dwarf “walking” snakehead fish can breathe atmospheric air and survive on land for up to four days. And the newly-found monkey’s upturned nose leads to a sneeze every time the rain falls.
In total, 211 species were discovered between 2009 and 2014 – that’s an average of 34 new species annually for the past six years. The report maps out the volume of new species found by scientists from various organisations including 133 plants, 39 invertebrates, 26 fish, 10 amphibians, one reptile, one bird and one mammal.
“I am excited that the region – home to a staggering number of species including some of the most charismatic fauna – continues to surprise the world with the nature and pace of species discovery,” said Ravi Singh, CEO of WWF-India and Chair of WWF’s Living Himalayas Initiative.
Conserving Biodiversity
One of the most biologically diverse places on Earth, the Eastern Himalayas – spanning Bhutan, north-east India, Nepal, north Myanmar and the southern parts of Tibet – are also under grave threat. Due to development, only 25% of the original habitats in the region remain intact and hundreds of species that live in the Eastern Himalayas are considered globally threatened.
Climate change is by far the most serious threat to the region but population growth, deforestation, overgrazing, poaching, the wildlife trade, mining, pollution and hydropower development have all contributed to the pressures its fragile ecosystems.
“The challenge is to preserve our threatened ecosystems before these species, and others yet unknown are lost,” said Sami Tornikoski leader of the WWF Living Himalayas Initiative. “The Eastern Himalayas is at a crossroads. Governments can decide whether to follow the current path towards fragile economies that do not fully account for environmental impacts, or take an alternative path towards greener, more sustainable economic development.”
WWF is actively involved in supporting the countries of the Eastern Himalayas’ progress towards green economies that value ecosystems and the services they provide to the millions of people in the region. Located in one of the most ecologically fragile regions on Earth, the WWF Living Himalayas Initiative urges a strong regional collaboration to ensure that people in this region, live within the ecological means and remain within the boundaries of one planet.
And through the USAID-funded Asia High Mountains project, WWF is working with communities on the edge of the region’s snow leopard range, where the many impacts of climate change and unsustainable development are already being felt. We are also influencing policy, which governs natural resource management across snow leopard range, and contributing to a future where both people and biodiversity can thrive.
“Together we can secure a brighter future for the region’s people and biodiversity, including its rich array of species – those that we already know and those still waiting to be discovered,” said Tornikoski.
Abuja-based WaterAid Nigeria and Makurdi-based First Step observed the 2015 Global Handwashing Day (GHD) on Thursday by seeking changes in hygiene habits. While WaterAid targeted children as change agents, First Step has urged the society in general to embrace the handwashing campaign.
Handwashing
WaterAid Nigeria announced the launch of a hygiene themed proposal writing competition for selected schools in the nation’s Federal Capital Territory. The competition, which aims to support children develop skills necessary to allow them become change agents, will ask students to write about the state of hygiene or sanitation in their schools and/or surrounding communities and what they think is a simple and cost-effective way to address the issue.
The best proposals will be funded to implement the recommended hygiene projects in their schools and/or surrounding communities.
The GHD is a campaign on 15 October each year to motivate and mobilise people around the world to wash their hands with soap as a key approach to disease prevention. WaterAid officials described the occasion as “an important opportunity to emphasise handwashing as an effective way to prevent disease and reduce child mortality and morbidity with its subsequent impact on overall health and school attendance.”
The organisation also joined the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, European Union (EU), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the National Task Group on Sanitation (NTGS), the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and other stakeholders to commemorate Global Handwashing Day with students at the Community Secondary School in Asokoro, Abuja.
Speaking at the handwashing event, Ms Tolani Busari, WaterAid Nigeria’s Head of Governance, encouraged students to make regular handwashing with soap a habit at home and at school and become hygiene champions in their schools and communities.
Ms Busari further spoke about the importance of handwashing with soap and its benefits for helping prevent diseases and saving lives.
The theme for this year’s Global Handwashing Day, “Raise a hand for hygiene,” encourages the creation of a strong social norm of good hygiene in schools and communities by asking children/students, people and organisations to stand up, be identified and be counted as hygiene champions. The theme is also a reminder that it is possible for governments to count how many people wash their hands and have access to hygiene facilities in homes, schools, and healthcare centres. Governments must measure hygiene indicators to know where resources should be concentrated.
This year’s Global Handwashing Day follows the historic adoption of the new United Nations’ Global Goals on Sustainable Development for 2030. The goals, which were agreed on by 191 countries including Nigeria, contain a goal focussed on access to water, sanitation and hygiene for all.
At the end of October, representatives from more than 100 countries and UN agencies in Bangkok will discuss how to measure progress towards the development targets agreed under the Global Goals. WaterAid is calling on all influential officials to help achieve the full health benefits of improved access to water and sanitation by ensuring indicators on hygiene are included as a measure of progress for the goal on water and sanitation for all.
Dr. Michael Ojo, Country Representative, WaterAid Nigeria, said: “Every day across the world, 1,400 children under five die from diarrhoea caused by dirty water and poor sanitation and hygiene. That’s one child every minute. Nigeria has recorded practically no progress in the area of sanitation and hygiene in the past 25 years and only 9% of the population have gained access to improved sanitation in that time. Only an estimated 12% of the population have a handwashing facility with soap and water at home.
“The recent agreement of the Global Goals, which aim to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, have brought us one step closer in ensuring such tragedies will be a thing of the past. However, there is still a long road ahead and a lot of work to be done to ensure the world delivers on the potential of these goals.
“Hygiene, and in particular handwashing, are frequently overlooked, and yet they make a huge difference to the health and wellbeing of the global population. Out of all water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions, hygiene promotion has proven to be particularly effective in reducing mortality and morbidity from child diarrhoea, and has been identified as the most cost-effective disease control intervention.
“WaterAid is calling for the vital role of hygiene to be included as an indicator for Goal 6, which works towards ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Handwashing and wider hygiene practice will be vital if we are to achieve the Global Goals related to health, education and water and sanitation access.”
Whilst the provision of improved water supply and sanitation facilities make it easier to practice good hygiene, on their own they are not sufficient to significantly decrease morbidity and mortality rates. Handwashing is critical for maximising the health benefits of investments in water supply and sanitation infrastructure and combating many health risks.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), handwashing with soap and improving hygiene practices can cut cases of diarrhoea by up to about 50%.
In Makurdi, Benue State, Executive Director, First Step, Mrs Rosemary Hua, called on policy makers, stakeholders and the society in general to embrace the habit of hand washing with soap.
Mrs Hua, who made this clarion call on Thursday in her opening remarks on occasion of the observation of the Global Handwashing Day, pointed out that event is apt as fostering and supporting local culture of hand washing with soap cannot be overemphasised.
She maintained that hand washing with soap is an easy, effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives.
“We are creating awareness on the benefits of hand washing with soap specifically to maternal and child health, children and schools with reference to women and children as agents of change,” she added.
In a good will message, the Benue State Commissioner for Water Resources, Nick Wende, who spoke through Nathan Ichor stated that hand washing with soap is important in maintaining a healthy life.
“We need water to wash hands and we at the Ministry will try to make potable water available, statewide to enhance the practice,” he stated.
Also speaking, the State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Mwuese Mnyim, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Tsegba Igbalumun, described the celebration as a re-awakening of the habit of hand washing with soap.
She called for all hands to be on deck in sustaining the habit of hand washing for the benefit of public health.
Earlier, President, Medical Women Association, Benue State Chapter, Dr. Priscilla Utoo, sued for partnership and synergy in practicing the habit of hand washing with soap, adding that, together, as a team, everyone achieves maximally.
In separate remarks, Timothy Chiese who represented the Benue State Rural Water and Sanitation Agency (BERWASA), Esther Kpeeteh, who represented the Permanent Secretary, Benue State Universal Basic Education Board, Mrs. Judith Hirnyam, representative of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the state, Mrs. Mary Makeri, reiterated the importance of hand washing with soap, noting that the habit is crucial to healthy and good living at a very low cost.
The GHD 2015 was marked in Makurdi by WaterAid Nigeria in collaboration with First Step, Benue State Chapter of Medical Women Association, Benue State Ministry for Women Affairs and Social Development featuring over 27 primary and secondary schools across the state.
High points of the celebration included demonstration of proper hand washing with soap, performance of hand washing theme song and distribution of hand washing songs CD and water containers to participating schools.
Organisations from 16 countries back Nnimmo Bassey’s call to support indigenous people, youth and women on the frontlines of climate change. Bassey, Chair of Global Greengrants Fund, is a Nigerian environmental and human rights activist. Global Greengrants supports community-based projects that address climate change and make our world safer and healthier
Nnimmo Bassey
This is a defining moment in the climate crisis. In six weeks, negotiators from countries around the world will arrive in Paris for the 21st United Nations Climate Summit. You will hear world leaders call these negotiations monumental. And perhaps they will be – if participants act decisively to stop dirty fossil fuels from laying waste to our health, to our ways of life and to the planet our young people will inherit.
The real hope for a climate change solution lies in remote corners of Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands and the Middle East, where people are carrying out bold solutions to stave off the impacts of climate change, even as they fight to survive the forces destroying their environments and forcing them to abandon their homelands.
No matter the outcome of the official talks, the months ahead are an opportunity to give power to community leaders – including indigenous people, youth and women – on the front lines of climate chaos and environmental destruction by extractive industries. People who struggle to stay ahead of rising seas, and who take a stand every day against illegal logging, large-scale mining and dirty energy development to protect their environments, rights and ways of life.
For example, Turkana communities have thrived in northern Kenya’s flat, desertscape for generations. But years of parching droughts have put this pastoral culture in danger of collapse. To make matters worse, rampant oil exploration and development threaten grazing land and, in some cases, have forced local pastoralists from their lands without their consent.
Enter recent law school graduate Ekai Nabenyo. Ekai and other youth in his native Turkana village founded the Lorengelup Community Development Initiative to teach local people about climate change and the link to oil development. In 2014, the group led a project to improve a local school, powered by solar panels. In just one year, school attendance has risen from 200 to 500 and has become a focal point for climate change education in the community.
Thanks to bold leaders like Ekai, communities worldwide have made enormous strides on their own, with limited resources, in the face of climate destruction. Imagine what they could do with more consistent flows of support.
Governments and funders gathered in Paris should earmark climate finance for local organisations that know what is needed and require resources to implement their effective projects. Civil society and funders must also join together to address these global issues. The cost is low, but the impact is great.
Over the past ten months, in partnership with the Oak Foundation and youth groups around the world, Global Greengrants has directed more than $400,000 to young climate leaders who are part of a youth movement that is gaining momentum every day. They are networking across borders and languages to raise awareness about climate change and call for significant action at the global level.
In December, front line climate activists will join Global Greengrants in Paris to network and raise their voices so that their stories of resilience and courage can be heard at the highest levels.
Those of us in communities where oil coats our waterways, super storms wipe out our farms, and water scarcity shrivels our crops know that true progress on climate chaos will happen from the ground up.
The grassroots has ignited. It is time to listen to their voices.
Signed by:
Africa Agenda, U.S.A.
African Youth Initiative on Climate Change, Kenya
BothENDS, Netherlands
Development Research Communication and Services Centre, India
Earth Island Institute, U.S.A.
Earthworks, U.S.A.
EDGE Funders Alliance, U.S.A.
Fondo Acciόn Solidaria AC, Mexico
Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific, Solomon Islands
Fundaciόn Tierra Viva, Honduras
Global Greengrants Fund, U.S.A.
Global Greengrants Fund / UK & Europe, U.K.
Green Camel Bell, China
Green Development Advocates, Cameroon
Green Longjiang, China
Green School Green Generation, Indonesia
Health of Mother Earth Foundation, Nigeria
International Rivers, U.S.A.
Millennium Community Development Initiatives, Kenya
National Association of Professional Environmentalists, Uganda
No REDD in Africa Network, Nigeria
Oilwatch Ghana, Ghana
Pesticide Action Network North America, U.S.A.
Pesticide Action Network International
Rainforest Action Network, U.S.A.
The Samdhana Institute, Indonesia/Philippines
Tautua Samoa Party, Samoa
Wuhu Ecology Center, China
Women Environmental Programme, Nigeria
Yayasan ParaPerintis, Indonesia
To celebrate Africa’s second annual Mercury-Free Dentistry Day, the African Centre for Environmental Health on Monday October 13 joined civil society groups across the continent by releasing a plan on how the continent can leapfrog into pollution-free dentistry.
According to scientists, dental amalgam is 50% mercury, considered a dangerous neurotoxin. The pollution-free alternatives to dental amalgam are affordable, effective, and available, observers say. Led by the African Region, over 120 nations have signed the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which calls for an immediate scaling down of amalgam use.
Meeting in Nigeria in 2014, African NGOs adopted the Abuja Declaration for Mercury-Free Dentistry for Africa, now endorsed by 40 civil society organisations (CSOs). Noting Africa’s ability to leapfrog steps that the West used in development, the Abuja Declaration states that Africa shall be first to end amalgam use.
Meeting in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 25 April 2015, francophone NGOs adopted “The Abidjan Plan to Implement the Abuja Declaration,” described by the activists as a common-sense set of steps to change dental school curriculum, provide consumers and parents with information about their choices in the dental office, and change government policies to favor mercury-free dentistry.
At the summit, participants voted to create a road map that can be implemented in every African nation, from Senegal to Tanzania, from Egypt to South Africa.
Consequently, the Abidjan Plan was released to celebrate Mercury-Free Dentistry Day for Africa.
Dominique Bally, Chairman of the Centre, said: “Mercury-free dentistry protects our people and our environment’s health. With the Abidjan Plan to implement the Abuja Declaration, we will reduce the mercury in fish that our children eat. We will protect the health of dental workers who are breathing toxic mercury vapors. We will work hand-in-hand with the dentists of our great region to leapfrog the technology into 21st century dentistry for Africa. We will expand oral health care for children.”
Here is the Abidjan Plan to implement the Abuja Declaration:
I. The Abidjan Plan to Implement the Abuja Declaration
A. Political, legal and institutional level
Work for government policies that will phase out amalgam use in Africa by the year 2020.
Disseminate the Minamata Convention on Mercury and accelerate its ratification in each country.
Create in each country a framework for consultation and collaboration between ministries (environment, health, education, commerce, industry, customs, insurance, etc.) for better management of mercury-free fillings’ import and use.
Change government programmes and insurance policies to cease favouring amalgam and to start favouring alternatives.
Make an inventory or supplement the existing baseline data on the use of dental amalgam in each country.
Strengthen cooperation and partnership between NGOs and dentists to eliminate the use of mercury in dentistry.
Strengthen the legal framework by developing regulatory texts regulating the use of dental amalgam.
Develop a prototype for mercury-free dentistry in hospitals based on the model of institutional dental care programmes implemented in military hospitals.
B. Training, research and development level
Change dental school curriculum to emphasise composite, ionomers, and other minimally-invasive and mercury-free dental fillings.
De-emphasise teaching amalgam, and then phase out instruction in amalgam.
Provide training in mercury-free filling placement to older dentists.
C. Information-education-communication level
Provide information to dental consumers/patients, telling them that amalgam is mainly mercury and that non-toxic alternatives are available.
Urge dental consumers/patients to choose mercury-free fillings.
Disseminate the Abuja Declaration in each country.
Raise awareness and disseminate information to all stakeholders involved in the implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury and in the reduction of mercury use in dentistry, especially insurers and distributors of biomedical products.
Educate the public authorities why amalgam should be phased out by 2020.
II. Why Civil Society Needs to Implement the Abuja Plan
Africans are well aware of the impact of toxic products manufactured elsewhere and dumped in Africa after Western consumers no longer prefer them. A current example is lead paint. Coming next, it would appear, is dental amalgam, which is 50% mercury.
A ban on amalgam in Europe is probable…and a shift of sales to Africa is likely to follow. Pro-mercury commercial interests from Europe, America, and Australia launched a campaign to keep and expand amalgam use in the East Africa Community nations and now intend to expand that programme.
That amalgam is a chief source of mercury pollution is undeniable. Africa’s political leadership is opposed to amalgam use. At the Minamata Convention negotiations, African governments and the African region collectively wrote the prototype language that was adopted in the Convention: a road map on how to scale down amalgam use, steps which are to begin now, not at some future date. In 2012, the Africa region was also first to propose an absolute ban on placing amalgam in the milk teeth. In 2015, the European Union health science committee agreed, calling for the end of amalgam use in children and pregnant women.
Africa is developing fast via leapfrog development steps – getting telephones without the intermediate step of land lines, getting banking without the intermediate step of building branch banks. Africa is using superior technology to meet development goals. Likewise, no reason exists for Africa to repeat the mistake of Europe by having mass use of mercury fillings, then switching to mercury-free fillings. Africa will leapfrog straight to mercury-free dentistry.
For the aura of inevitability for mercury-free dentistry that we are building, Africa will get there first before other regions.
The Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Women Rights to Education (WREP), Women Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON) and Gender Equality Peace and Development Centre (GEDPC) have called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to support rural women in small holder farming so as to address hunger and poverty in Nigeria.
Founding Director of WARDC, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi. Photo credit: topcelebritiesng.com
The call was made in commemoration of the International Day for Rural Women observed yearly on October 15. It is a United Nations’ designated day to celebrate and honour the role of rural women and their importance in enhancing food production and rural development.
Founding Director of WARDC, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, said in a statement: “The International Day for Rural Women is set aside to give special focus to the critical place occupied by rural women in the struggle to reduce poverty and improvement of food security especially in developing countries of Asia and Africa.
“Over 50% of Nigerian women live in the rural areas and perform about 70 percent of agricultural labour force. In spite of their role, they lack access to agricultural inputs and finance, they have less than 14 percent land holding rights, while culture, traditions and discriminatory laws continue to deny the women equal access to government programmes at national and state levels.”
Ms Mimido Akchapa of WREP stated: “Over 70 percent of land in Africa is held under traditional titles and customs controlled by men. This is also applicable to Nigeria where in some instances, over 90 percent of land are held and controlled by men while women as wives or daughters in many communities have little or no access neither controls over such lands. They continue to suffer in silence due to discrimination on the basis of their gender and not because they have less strength or intelligence to perform rural activities in the Agricultural value chain.”
While Prof Patricia Donli, Executive Director of GEDPC,was of the opinion that government has not done enough, she emphasised: “The prioritisation of support for commercial farmers by subsequent government at national and state levels and the politicisation of development programmes have also added to the plight of rural women because national budget for the agricultural sector which targets commercial farmers already exclude rural women from enjoying the benefits of government programmes.”
Jumoke Rasak of WOCON contended: “Agricultural policies and programmes have remain gender neutral while rural development programmes are often not cash backed hence the perpetuation of poverty and hunger in Nigeria.”
The Women groups argue thatNigeria is a signatory to international instruments and policy framework of the African Union and the United Nations which mandates the government to protect and promote the rights of women to land and other development needs. Recent reports from some progressive democracies across Africa such as Kenya and Mozambique suggest that concrete legal steps are being taken to safe guide equal access of men and women to land and properties.
Dr. Akiyode-Afolabiconcluded: “This International Day of Rural Women provides a rare privilege for the President to empower rural women in terms of accessibility to land and farm inputs, loans, markets and preservation of farm produce so that they can cultivate more land, earn more from their farming, participate and be represented in decisions that affect their livelihoods and automatically improve food security, reduce poverty and economic well-being of all Nigerians.”
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has pledged Togo on regulatory frameworks in the area of the advancement of science, technology and innovation in the country.
Prof. Aggrey Ambali. Photo credit: nepad.org
A high-level advocacy team led by Prof. Aggrey Ambali, who represented the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NEPAD Agency and the Michigan State University, expressed the availability of NEPAD Agency to support the work that is being done in Togo to advance science, technology and innovation.
The team encouraged Togo authorities to work towards the adoption of the revised biosafety laws in order to allow Togolese scientists to properly carry out research as well as safely use new technologies to address development challenges in the country.
Ministers from the ministries of Environment, Agriculture and Higher Education and Scientific Research met with the NEPAD team to discuss what needs to be done in order to activate the process of adoption of the revised biosafety law by the National Assembly of Togo.
Responding, the Ministers commended the team, particularly NEPAD Agency for the initiative to build capacity of Togolese regulators as well as the roles being played by the Agency to support the country, especially in agricultural development and capacity building areas.
It could be recalled that Togo signed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in July 2004 and passed a biosafety law in January 2009. Togo was also the fifth African country to sign the Nagoya Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress in September 2011. This paved the way for the revision of the “Loi N°2009-001 du 06 janvier 2009 portant Prévention des Risques Biotechnologiques au Togo”.
Also, NEPAD Agency – the African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE) provided technical and material support to local consultants to review the investor-unfriendly biosafety law. The draft revised biosafety law was successfully completed in 2013. A stakeholders’ meeting was organised in 2014 to validate the revised draft, with technical support from the Network.
According to NEPAD, the draft revised bill, including the implementing regulations, are ready for submission to the Parliament.
Following the granting of an approval and financial support by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Nigeria has commenced the preparation of her Biennial Update Report (BUR), which is regarded as one of the centerpieces of the global mitigation architecture for the upcoming 2015 new climate agreement in Paris.
BURs are national documents to be prepared and submitted every two years to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), taking into account the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission level of all sectors of the economy, such as energy, oil and gas, transportation and agriculture, among others.
At a project initiation workshop held on Wednesday, October 7, 2015 in Abuja, Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Environment (FMEv), Mrs Nana Fatima Mede, stated that the BUR constitutes an essential component of the National Communication (NC) under the UNFCCC, the preparation of which is designed to bridge the information gaps on GHG inventory in-between the country’s NCs.
She said: “The project initiation workshop affords stakeholders the knowledge of what Nigeria is to report in terms of emission of GHGs and where each stakeholder will be required to supply relevant information needed to prepare the Report.”
At the gathering she formally unveiled the National Policy on Climate Change which, according to her, “the Ministry developed to act as a guide in the national implementation in climate change activities. The implementation is cross-cutting in that it involves all sectors.”
Director, Department of Climate Change in the Ministry, Dr Samuel Adejuwon, traced the genesis of the BUR, saying that it was adopted in 2010/COP16 for the purpose of enhancing reporting of mitigation actions, their effects and support received in the NC. Then, in 2011/COP17, non-Annex1 Parties under the UNFCCC adopted the guidelines for BUR and the submission of BURs every two years was decided, he added.
According to him, the BUR is an Obligation to non-Annex1 Parties under the UNFCCC to prepare and submit every two years, reliable, comprehensive and transparent reporting from the National Communication.
He listed its objectives to include:
To facilitate understanding of current levels of global emissions as well as the ambition of existing efforts to combat climate change, at both the national and international levels.
To enhance reporting in national communications, including inventories, from non-Annex I Parties on mitigation actions and their effects, needs and support received
To serve as an input to the process (international consultation and analysis) that aims to increase transparency of mitigation actions and their effects.
His words: “National GHG Inventory year captured in any BUR should not be more than four years; that is, if a country wants to submit its BUR in 2015, the inventory year should be from 2011 upwards.
“The GEF has a ‘set aside’ resources for NCs and BURs, such that countries can access up to $500,000 for NC and $352,000 for BURs.”
Prime Initiative for Green Development (PIGD), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has drawn the attention of government and that of development partners to the urgent need to help address the deteriorating condition in Azubie Okujagu, a small coastline community in Rivers State, Niger Delta region, which is currently undergoing various challenges that are attributed to poor industrial and environmental practices.
Members of PIGD and representatives of Azubie Okujagu community during a recent advocacy visit
Established to help eradicate environmental hazards, champion the concept of sustainable development and mainstream human rights into national development initiatives, the group highlighted challenges requiring attention to improve livelihoods in the village, located in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of the state, to include access to clear drinking water, incessant pollution and poor waste management system.
Pitiable ecological activities including oil spillage across the Niger Delta region have continued to threaten sources and standards of living, particularly the ecosystem where they are carried out and consequently constitute ecocide.
A scientific study released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2011 revealed large-scale, continued contamination of the water and soil in the Niger Delta region, and the threat posed to human health. In one case, UNEP found that a community drinking well was polluted with benzene, a potentially carcinogenic substance, at levels 900 times above World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.
Executive director of PIGD, ThankGod Uzomah, who made this call during an advocacy visit with members of his team to the vulnerable community, described the situation faced by residents of the area as highly pathetic, in-human and tantamount to modern day slavery.
To effectively tackle and eradicate the aforementioned epidemic, according to him, there is conscious need for intervention and re-designing of the community’s development plan.
“From PIGD’s observation, we can deduce that Azubie Okujagu is truly in need of urgent intervention in areas such as provision of potable water, environmental re-engineering and provision of basic infrastructural amenities,” he said. “Therefore, we are calling on reputable international organisations and government to ameliorate their situation.”
Also commenting, chairman of Azubie Okujagu Community Development Committee (CDC), Precious Okujagu, while elaborating on the matter lamented at the level of negligence and lack of basic amenities to protect and cushion the aftermath of unsafe environmental practices in the area.
The community developer disclosed that inhabitants of the settlement have being enduring this problem for over three decades, experiencing severe hardship during raining season when sea rise usually occur.
“The only access to water is through bore-hole and these bore-holes have to be drilled to the depth of over 150-200ft to access good water,” he said, ascribing it to the saline water condition in the community.
Other members who added their voices to canvass assistance urged stakeholders, especially government, to rapidly embark on a massive clean-up exercise of the contaminated waters to restore aquatic life mostly fishing, a major source of economic driver in the area.
Oluwatoyin Awosika, the Director of Public Enlightenment, Lagos State Ministry of Information,on Fridayurged residents living on flood-prone areas to relocate to safe locations.
Awosika told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that the ministry had commenced sensitisation of the affected residents to change their attitudes in order to avert flood disasters.
He said the state spent huge resources to make refuse collection cheap and affordable, adding that measures were already in place to relocate residents in case of flood disaster.
He said: “People would tell you all sorts of things.
“The water is flowing, they dump everything there, but it is going to block somewhere.
“So what happens?
“The water will fight back into homes.
“At night they cross the roads to dump refuse into the drains and on the highways.
“Government is always very careful.
“If you force people out now, they would tell you where do you want to relocate them to.
“Government doesn’t have the house to relocate.
“If there is a flood disaster, we would move them to the Imota and the Egbeda resettlement areas.
“So, you can’t say you are going to push them there until the rain leaves.
“So the best is to advice (them) to evacuate.
“It is not easy sincerely.
“Where are they going?
“Are they going to rent new apartments and then come back when the rains have stopped?
“So government is to continue to sensitise you to the dangers.
“Why we are telling you to relocate is that if a serious flood comes, you are now giving the excuses of money and this, lives would go.
“You cannot buy the lives.
“Your property gone.
“You cannot replace most of them.
“So it is better you try to relocate.
“Our own is to continue to hit the mindset, attitudinal mindset.
“That is all we continue to do.
“People change; we keep showing the documentaries for people see how the drains are blocked.
“What happens, how they de-flood, hit the road, spoil houses, everything.”
NAN reports that the Nigerian Meteorological Agency had predicted heavy rains and possible flooding in 2015.
NIMET has advised people living on flood plains to relocate to safe areas.
The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria saidon Fridaythat the monthly contributions to the National Housing Fund (NHF) by civil servants were inadequate to guarantee full and prompt access to the fund by contributors.
FMBN Managing Director, Gimba Ya’u Kumo
The FMBN’s Managing Director, Gimba Ya’u Kumo, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
Kumo urged the Federal Government to intervene in order to enhance more access to the fund by the contributors.
He said the FMBN needed adequate funds and support to enhance its services.
He said: “It is so because if you look at the NHF today, we have over four million contributors into the scheme, but if you look at the size of contribution, it is 2.5 per cent of their salaries.
“The total contribution is not enough to even give 100,000 contributors.
“That is why we have been complaining that we need Federal Government’s intervention.
“And the analysis runs this way: it means 250 contributors, contributing to the scheme for 10 years for one person to be able to access N15 million.
“And the Act provided that apart from the contributions the bank receives from the contributors to the scheme, government is supposed to be intervening on yearly basis.”
Kumo also said commercial banks that were supposed to deposit 10 per cent of their loan portfolio to the scheme were not doing so.
He said: “The Nigerian banks are supposed to be depositing 10 per cent of their loan portfolio to the scheme, but these had not been done over the years.
“Similarly the insurance companies have been mandated to contribute a certain percentage of their life funds and non-life funds, that’s policies 25 and 20 per cent, but these have not been done.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria that has almost 40 per cent of their shares in the bank since 2006 has not paid that shares, but (we) have been following up.
“I am happy that the government is putting in place funding for the bank and when that is done, we can see what we can do for Nigerians.”
Kumo commended the plans by the present administration to put in place funding for the bank, adding: “When t’his is done, Nigerians will benefit immensely.
“The issue is that 17 million (housing) deficits, the FMBN alone or Federal Government alone cannot meet up with that requirement.
“If you look at the new government policy to build one million houses every year, if that is done, it means that it will take government and other developers the next 17 years to close the existing deficit.
“And deficit continues to grow.
“So I think the housing situation is beyond the ordinary man’s comprehension because if we don’t intervene, we will be in the crisis situation in the next 15 to 20 years.”
Kumo said the population of the Federal Capital Territory in the past five to 10 years was not more than two million, but presently FCT had over seven million people.
He added: “So the houses available have been overstretched, facilities have been overstretched, transportation has been overstretched, including security issues.
“I believe with the steps to be taken by government now, we will soon feel the impact of the new housing policy.”
