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Bread of Life clamours end to open defecation

Water & Sanitation

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November 21, 2014

Bread of Life clamours end to open defecation

As Nigeria joined the world to mark the World Toilet Day during the week, the Bread of Life Development Foundation (BLDF), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has called on the citizenry to collectively work to make open urination and open defecation history. It also called on government bodies at federal, state, and local council levels to declare safe sanitation a human right as part of an overall strategy to achieve universal access to safe sanitation in the country.

Babatope Babalobi, Executive Director of the BLDF, disclosed: “It is a big shame that, in the 21^st century, up to 105 million Nigerians still don’t have access to safe toilets; and, out of this figure, 34million Nigerians practice open defecation. And what is even more deplorable and unacceptable is the fact that at the existing rate of progress, as reported by a recent UNDP Human Development Index Report, Nigeria may not meet the sanitation MDG target until 2076.

“Nigeria cannot continue to lament this national challenge, but we need to take action to turn out lamentations to success stories. The 2014 World Toilet Day offers an opportunity for individuals, institutions, and government duty bearers to urgently implement measures and practices that ensure every home has a safe toilet, every public place has an accessible safe toilet within 500 meters, and every institution, school, company, and office has a safe toilet that is accessible to all categories of users including the physically-challenged.

“Now is the time to ensure the sight of people squatting along road paths to defecate, men and women pulling down their clothes to urinate along the streets, citizens squatting on waste dumps to defecate, and students entering bust paths to defecate, becomes history. With individual and collective action, open urination and defecation can become history in Nigeria, just as the Ebola virus has gone into the history books of our public health.”

Proposing measures to end open defecation and improve personal and public health, BLDF says it starts by prioritising sanitation issues, putting it in the front burner of national discourse, away from the back burner it is presently relegated by political and security issues.

“Unless we openly discuss open defecation, we may not be able to put an end to open defecation. Until we stop pretending our personal ‘shit’ is not a problem, and admit there is a challenge in safely managing and disposing of our personal and collective ‘shits’, we may not make an headway in accelerating access to safe sanitation for 105 million Nigerians who don’t have access to safe toilets, and 35 million Nigerians who presently defecate in the open..”

Other measures recommended by the BLDF are listed to include the following:

The Federal Government should send a positive signal of its commitment to universal access to safe sanitation in Nigeria, by seizing the opportunity of this year’s World Toilet Day celebration to declare the right to safe sanitation for all Nigerians, and work with other arms of government and stakeholders towards progressive realisation of this right at households, community and institutional levels.
The Federal Government should honourably fulfil financial commitments for the sanitation sector made at various high-level meetings including the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 2000, United Nations Assembly, New York in 2010, African Sanitation and Hygiene conference, eThekwini in 2011, and the Sanitation and Water for All meeting in Washington, in 2012. Specifically, the Federal Ministry of Finance should ensure progressive annual increases in budget allocation and ensures that at the minimum up to 0.5% of Nigeria’s national budget is allocated to sanitation.
State and local governments should as a matter of emergency and necessity also create budget lines for water-related sanitation, particularly hygiene promotion, and safe disposal of human faeces.
Several states are yet to adopt the implementation of Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach for scaling up rural sanitation; as such the National Task Group on Sanitation should catalyst efforts in this regard, working with various state and local governments, as well as rural communities to ensure every Nigerian village is declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) within the next five years.
Institutionally, urban sanitation is presently an ‘orphan’ particularly at the state level, as many states do not have any agency charged with urban sanitation policy formulation, coordination, and service provision. To address this gap, every state should set up a State Task Group on Sanitation for state level policy coordination; and go a step further by saddling the task of provision of sanitation facilities in urban public places in an appropriate agency. In the same vein, state governments should empower their Rural Water and Sanitation Agencies to develop sanitation service in rural levels, where the body should be created in states where it does not presently exist.
Government and NGOs should consciously mainstream equity and inclusion issues in all sanitations projects to ensure sanitation facilities are accessible and usage by the 20 million Nigerians who are physically challenged, and not able to access conventional sanitation facilities.

Biodiversity convention launches compendium on Protected Area Governance

Conservation

Michael Simire

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November 21, 2014

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Biodiversity convention launches compendium on Protected Area Governance

A new compendium providing the latest and best professional information needed for protected area practitioner capacity development was released this week in the margins of the 6th IUCN World Parks Congress.

Titled “Protected Area Governance and Management,” the compendium provides information to support capacity development training of protected area field officers, field managers and executive-level managers for improving governance and management of protected areas effectively.

Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity

“This compendium will significantly contribute to developing the capacity of managers of protected areas, at all levels, to deliver effective governance and management of protected areas,” said Braulio Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). “Such capacity development is absolutely necessary for effective implementation of the Programme of Work for Protected Areas of the CBD, which will facilitate achievement not only of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets but also of the proposed Sustainable Development Goals and the post-2015 development agenda.”

The compendium, launched by Dias and Jane Smart, Global Director, Biodiversity Conservation Group of IUCN, was compiled by 169 authors and edited by Graeme Worboys, Michael Lockwood, Ashish Kothari, Sue Feary and Ian Pulsford.

“This compendium needs to be read by all those involved in the management of protected areas – from the heads of protected area authorities to the field managers and field officers on the ground,” said Ms. Smart. “Acting on the rich compendium of information provided in this book will help ensure that the world moves towards achieving Aichi Target 11: protected areas which are conserving the most important places for biodiversity, and which are connected, well managed and governed.”

Graeme Worboys, chief architect and driving force behind the book, said, “This information-rich compendium text book on protected area governance and management is an investment in today’s protected area managers and the next generation of park practitioners. Through their improved knowledge and competent management, it is also an investment in better biodiversity conservation and a healthier planet.”

The CBD is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. It opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and entered into force in December 1993.

With 194 Parties up to now, the Convention has near universal participation among countries. The Convention seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, including threats from climate change, through scientific assessments, the development of tools, incentives and processes, the transfer of technologies and good practices and the full and active involvement of relevant stakeholders including indigenous peoples and local communities, youth, NGOs, women and the business community.

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing are supplementary agreements to the Convention. The Cartagena Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. To date, 168 Parties have ratified the Cartagena Protocol. The Nagoya Protocol aims at sharing the benefits arising from the utilisation of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies. It entered into force on 12 October 2014 and to date has been ratified by 57 Parties.

Lack of toilets traced to high child mortality rate

Water & Sanitation

Michael Simire

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November 21, 2014

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Lack of toilets traced to high child mortality rate

Thirty-six prominent international health and development experts including representatives from WaterAid, AMREF Health Africa, the World Medical Association, Commonwealth Medical Association, Global Health Council, International Confederation of Midwifes, the Nigerian Medical Association, Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency, the Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria, the Nigerian Red Cross Society and the Nigerian Medical Students Association have called for an end to the sanitation predicament.

On the occasion of the World Toilet Day 2014, it is estimated that the sanitation situation has claimed the lives of over 10 million children under the age of five since the year 2000, with 1.1 million having died over this period in Nigeria also contributing to this figure.

In an open letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, the signatories who represent over 620,000 health professionals globally highlight the desperate waste of life caused by people not having access to a basic toilet. Without basic sanitation, children have no choice but to live and play in areas contaminated by human waste.

Seven in 10 children in Nigeria do not have access to a basic toilet, which alongside unsafe drinking water and a lack of hygiene services, contributes to three of the main killers of children: under nutrition, pneumonia and diarrhoea, the letter states.

The letter, coordinated by the international development organisation WaterAid, has been published to coincide with World Toilet Day. It also highlights that the sanitation ‘crisis touches every moment of every child’s life, from birth to adulthood, if they are lucky enough to make it that far‘.

“The WTD also sadly reminds us of the current crisis we are facing in West Africa where Ebola has taken the lives of so many. This is further exacerbated by the cholera outbreak that has continued to plague neighbouring countries like Niger, Ghana and Sierra Leone as well as pocket outbreaks of the disease in Nigeria – resulting in many sick children in our part of the world. A lack of safe toilets and clean water is a major factor contributing to this,” disclosed WaterAid.

WaterAid Nigeria’s Country Representative, Michael Ojo

WaterAid Nigeria Country Representative, Dr. Michael Ojo, said: “The dangers of poor sanitation and dirty water have been known for around 150 years, yet 121 million people (about 72% of the population) do not have a basic toilet to use in Nigeria and nearly 40 million still defecate in the open. This lack of access to basic sanitation harms the health of children and often leaves a lifetime legacy of disease and poverty. Those children need our government to collectively step up and commit that by 2030 no home, hospital or school will be without a toilet and clean water.”

The open letter to the UN Secretary-General coincides with a new briefing released by WaterAid: ‘Child of Mine’ which states that sanitation ‘remains one of the most neglected issues in developing countries and international development aid’. As the briefing highlights, this is despite a quarter of the 162 million children globally who have had their growth stunted and their physical and cognitive development impaired, because they suffered repeated bouts of diarrhoea when very young.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 88% of cases of diarrhoea are caused by a lack of access to basic sanitation, unsafe drinking water and poor hygiene provision. Globally, over 12 million children are estimated to have died from 2000 to 2013 because of diarrhoeal diseases. Of these deaths, 10.6 million have been as a result of a lack of these services.

The release of the letter to the UN Secretary-General and the publication of the ‘Child of Mine’ briefing come as governments work to complete the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that run from 2000 to 2015, and negotiate the new Sustainable Development Goals, which will replace them. WaterAid Nigeria called on government to commit to backing a new goal for everyone everywhere to have access to clean water and basic sanitation by 2030.

Executive Director of Nigeria’s National Primary Health Development Agency, Dr. Ado Mohammed, in his correspondence to WaterAid, said: “Poor sanitation, hygiene and lack of clean water contribute to the deplorable health conditions especially among children and women in Nigeria. In view of this and of our goal to eradicate transmission of the Wild Poliovirus in Nigeria at the end of the year – polio being an oral faecal disease thriving under poor hygiene and sanitation conditions as well as an unavailability of clean water sources – we lend our voice to the call for universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene.”

Amref Health Africa, which works in nine African countries to improve health through community work and strengthening health systems, is also a signatory to the letter. Amref Health Africa’s Director General, Dr Teguest Guerma, said: “Safe sanitation, good hygiene practice and clean water are fundamental to improving health and well-being. But the shocking reality is that far too many people lack even these basic services. As a result, millions of people die every year from diseases that could have been prevented.

“Progress in tackling this crisis has been far too slow but governments can take the first crucial step by strongly and publicly backing calls for universal access to these services during negotiations around the Sustainable Development Goals. As experts in health, we know that this is the necessary prescription.”

The open letter includes the call for the UN Chief, Ban-Ki Moon, ‘to lead the world to a future of better health, dignity and prosperity for all by championing a dedicated goal to deliver water and sanitation to everyone, everywhere by 2030.’

Nnimmo Bassey emerges Fellow of Nigerian Institute of Architects

Real Estate

Michael Simire

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November 21, 2014

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Nnimmo Bassey emerges Fellow of Nigerian Institute of Architects

Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, has bagged the Fellowship of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA). The renowned environmental activist, who is a trained and practicing architect, will be decorated today, Friday November 21 2014, at an investiture ceremony at the institute’s Biennial General Meeting at Ilorin, Kwara State.

Born on 11 June 1958 in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, Bassey studied architecture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he obtained a Bachelor of Architecture (B. Arch.) degree. He also holds a Diploma in Christian Theology from the GLIM Bible College (1999) and a Diploma in Biosafety (Gene Ecology) from the University of Tromso, Norway (2005).

In a statement, officials of his firm disclosed: “Bassey delivers architectural designs that respect contextual integrity, climatic conditions and the living patterns of end users. He interprets architecture as an intersection of social engineering and spatial arts. At the beginning of his architectural practice, Arc Bassey worked at the Physical Planning Division of the Vice Chancellor’s office, University of Benin, Benin City.

“In 1991, he entered into private architectural practice as the Principal Partner of Base Consult (AFR 108) and currently practices in this capacity. His portfolio is vast and diverse. Some of his projects include the Vice Chancellor’s lodges at the University of Benin and the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akumgba; Faculty of Education, University of Benin; Faith Liberation Church, Asaba; Modern Motor Parks at Uyo for Akwa Ibom State; buildings at Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja (along with Fariog Consult) and Maisonette for Alvaro De Soussa, Angola. His recent architectural work includes the on-going Festus Iyayi ASUU Secretariat at the University of Benin.”

Bassey is a man of many parts. Beyond his architectural portfolio, he is a published writer and poet. Some of his notable works are The Management of Construction; Living Houses (2005); I will not Dance to Your Beat (Poems, 2011) and To Cook A Continent – Destructive Extraction and Climate Crisis in Africa (2012), which has so far been translated in Portuguese and Finnish. He also holds several awards for his active involvement in the struggle for environmental justice around the world, especially in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

He co-founded Environment Rights Action (ERA) and is the director of HOMEF, which he founded recently. Some of his prestigious awards are theTime Magazine Hero of the Environment (2009), Right Livelihood Award (2010), Rafto Human Rights Award (2012), He was giving the Nigerian National Honour of Member of the Federal Republic (MFR) in September, 2014. Bassey serves in leadership positions in architectural, philanthropic and environmental organizations. He is widely travelled globally.

Nnimmo Bassey is an ordained minister and serves with the Gospel Light International Ministries – New Covenant Gospel Church. He is married to Evelyn Bassey and they have three sons, Otoabasi (26), Daramfon (23) and Ukpono (17).

Will new climate treaty be a thriller, or Shaggy dog story?

Climate Change

Michael Simire

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November 21, 2014

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Will new climate treaty be a thriller, or Shaggy dog story?

This December, 195 nations plus the European Union will meet in Lima for two weeks for the crucial U.N. Conference of the Parties on Climate Change, known as COP 20. The hope in Lima is to produce the first complete draft of a new global climate agreement.
However, this is like writing a book with 195 authors. After five years of negotiations, there is only an outline of the agreement and a couple of ‘chapters’ in rough draft.

The deadline is looming: the new climate agreement to keep climate change to less than two degrees C is to be signed in Paris in December 2015.

“A tremendous amount of work has to be done in Lima,” said Erika Rosenthal, an attorney at Earthjustice, an environmental law organisation and advisor to the chair of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

Climate science is clear that global CO2 emissions must begin to decline before 2020 – otherwise, preventing a 2C temperature rise will be extremely costly and challenging.

“Time is short after Lima and Paris cannot fail,” said Rosenthal. “Paris is the key political moment when the world can decisively move to reap all the benefits of a clean, carbon-free economy.”

Success in Lima will depend in part on Peru’s Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal. As official president of COP 20, Pulgar-Vidal’s determination and energy will be crucial, most observers believe.

Climate change is a major issue in Peru, since Lima and many other parts of the country are dependent on freshwater from the Andes glaciers. Studies show they have lost 30 to 50 percent of their ice in 30 years and many will soon be gone.

Pulgar-Vidal has said he expects Lima to deliver a draft agreement, although it may not include all the chapters. The full draft with all the chapters needs to be completed by May 2015 to have time for final negotiations.

The future climate agreement, which could easily be book-length, will have three main sections or pillars: mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage. The mitigation or emissions reduction pillar is divided into pre-2020 emission reductions and post-2020 sections.