In the light of the challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and national implementation of Vision 20:2020, experts and key government officials have taken up a campaign to integrate climate change/environmental concerns into the nation’s development agenda, particularly the second National Implementation Plan (NIP-2).
The initiative was the outcome of a two-day gathering in Abuja on “Focused Meeting to Mainstream Climate Change/Environment Issues into National Implementation Plan (NIP-2) of the Nigeria Vision 2020” organised by the Department of Climate Change (DCC) of the Federal Ministry of Environment (FME) in collaboration with National Planning Commission (NPC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
UNDP Deputy Country Director for Programmes, Bernardo Cocco, disclosed that the meeting was designed to complement on-going efforts to develop institutional capacities at all levels of government, in order to effectively position Nigeria to benefit enormously from the global shift towards green economy and sustainable development.
He added that the benefits would not only include reduced risks and vulnerability, prevention of policy duplications and enhanced efficiency, but would eventually result in the leveraging of greater finances for tackling the negative consequences of climate change to development gains in Nigeria.
Cocco said that the ultimate objective of this process on the long run is to improve adaptive capacity, create an enabling policy environment and institutionalise the framework for continued budget support for tackling these issues.
Permanent Secretary in the FME, Rabi Jimeta, who declared the meeting open, said the issue of climate change is no more in doubt as, over the years, the implication of climate change on development process has increasingly influenced economic performance and livelihood with cascading effects in human health and key sectors of the economy.
According to her, Nigeria is currently experiencing climate conditions with adverse impacts on the welfare of millions of its population. These include incidences of persistent droughts and flooding, off-season rains, drying lakes and increasing desertification as well as considerable reduction in river flow in the arid and semi-arid regions of the country.
“Northern Nigeria is becoming drier, while the Southern part is getting wetter, increasing incidences of disease, declining agricultural productivity, and rising incidences of heat waves. People in the coastal areas who used to depend on fishing have seen their livelihoods destroyed by the rising waters,” she said.
Represented by the Director, DCC, Samuel Adejuwon, she noted that it is important to manage climate change risks as part of our development approach, integrating climate change as a cross cutting issue in development plans will protect hard won advances made to date and to be made in the future in reducing national poverty. Such an integrated approach will make development more resilient by reducing climate impacts and identifying development opportunities in Nigeria.
Jimeta stressed that mainstreaming climate change/ environmental issues into NIP-2 of the Nigeria Vision 2020-20 would help to address the looming negative impacts of climate change and turn the challenges into opportunities for national sustainable and low carbon development path.
Similarly, the implementation of climate change activities therefore needs to be taken more seriously towards achieving Nigeria’s national development plan, transformational agenda and fulfilling Nigeria’s obligations to both the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol.
NPC Director, Social Development, George Nwalupue, said the meeting provides an opportunity for stakeholders to harvest inputs for incorporation into the proposed NIP-2 of the Nigeria Vision (NV20: 2020). He added that the meeting came up at the right time, when climate change and environmental issues and their attendant consequences are now in the front burner.
He noted that for national development to be sustainable, it is imperative to conceptualise the environment as a cross cutting development issue and to ensure that environment resources are properly valued and accounted for in the development process.
Concerned by the lack of sufficient enabling laws to protect the environment coupled with the devastating effects of climate change in the country, a group of environment and climate change experts recently in Abuja presented a memorandum to the Environment Committee of the National Conference.
The forum was facilitated by the Abuja-based Nigeria country office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Nigeria, with its fast growing population, has a land surface area of 924,000 km2.The environment is however under increasing threat from human activities and natural disasters such as flood and drought.
By the 1990s, a World Bank report estimated that Nigeria was losing a considerably amount yearly to environmental degradation in the face of poor mitigation measures and initiatives.
The experts, led by renowned climatologist Professor Emmanuel Oladipo, captured such key environmental challenges facing the nation in terms of land degradation, as well as air and water pollution.
The group argued that inappropriate technologies and rapid deforestation are major contributing factors to soil erosion, flooding and land degradation, and desertification.
Fossil fuel use, particularly oil and gas exploration, has aggravated the problem of ecological damage in the Niger Delta.
Similarly, indiscriminate and illegal mining for mineral resources in many parts of Nigeria have left many areas of the country bare and unproductive, particularly in Kaduna, Nasarawa, Plateau and Zamfara states.
While warning the Confab committee that urgent actions needed to be taken to salvage the environment, the experts said: “If a nation’s environmental foundation is depleted, its economy may well decline, its social fabric may deteriorate, and its political structure may even become destabilised. Development will be meaningful if it does not increase a country’s vulnerability to environmental impacts. Development seen purely from economic growth view that is an increase in quantity cannot be sustainable indefinitely on a finite planet.
“As the environment is the life supporting system of human existence and survival and provides much of the physical milieu and the raw materials required for socio-economic progress, humanity has no choice but to interact with it.
“Unfortunately, human interaction, natural disaster and climate change are putting unprecedented pressure and impact on the quality of our environmental conditions. Climate change, in particular, is currently one of the most critical issues facing mankind today. It strikes at the very heart of the sustainability of our life, and is compounding human efforts to attain sustainable development. Nigeria is strongly predisposed to severe negative impacts of climate change due to its nature of the economy, weak resilience and low adaptive capacity. Much of the economy is dependent on climate change-sensitive resources.
“For example, the agriculture sector (crop production, livestock and fishery) and forestry which employ up to 70 per cent of the workforce and contributes about 22 per cent of the rebased GDP is very climate sensitive.”
The experts also told the committee that if the environment is properly managed, it can be a productive resource to meet or socio-economic and aesthetic needs, not only for today, but also for the future generations. Conversely, if poorly managed, the environment could easily become hazardous and threatening to the country’s survival. Where human interaction with the environment results in degradation, it can be a significant source of economic loss and stress upon human societies.
For Nigeria to ensure its environmental sustainability in the context of its rapidly growing economy, the experts however underlined the need to make a clean, healthy and satisfactory environment a constitutional right in which the natural resources of the country are seen as the heritage for the present and future generation.
This, they said, is based on the premise that every Nigerian has the right to a clean and healthy environment, which must not be infringed upon by another person.
Thus, any new Constitution that may arise from the National Conference must contain specific provisions that recognise environmental rights as well as the right for people to derive economic, social and cultural benefits from natural resources. An emerging consensus is that constitutional environmental rights and responsibilities are a catalyst for stronger environmental laws, better enforcement of those laws and enhanced public participation in environmental governance.
According to them, there is a strong positive correlation between superior environmental performance and constitutional provisions requiring environmental protection. Nations with green constitution (such as Norway which added environmental rights to its constitution in 1992) have smaller ecological footprints and have reduced air pollution up to 10 times faster than nations without environmental goals for sustainable development may never be attained. Thus any constitutional review process should include detailed obligations in respect of specific natural resources, as well as the human aspects of environmental management.
They also advocated for the adoption of an Integrated Environmental Management Approach (IEMA) in the country’s development process. This, they noted, calls for a holistic and goal-oriented approach to environmental management that addresses interconnections through a strategic approach that selects, designs and implements mutually supporting activities contributing to solving a particular problem(s) to maintain the environment in a good condition for a variety of long-range sustainable uses and for the future generations.
The group also underscored the need to conduct environmental assessment and mapping of blight spots to produce State of the Environment Report (SOER) on a five- to 10-yearly basis to measure the country’s environmental performance and to have appropriate data for environmental planning for mainstreaming or integration into national development planning and the implementation of development process/agenda.
The SOER is intended to capture and present, in as accurate and useful a format as practicable, key information on the state of the environment in terms of its current condition, the pressures on it and the drivers of these pressures.
The experts also underscored the need to develop and implement a medium- to long-term National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) that will ensure the mainstreaming of environmental issues into Vision 20:2020 for sustainable development of Nigeria.
This, according to them, would enable Nigeria to address the environmental problems of the country in a more integrated and holistic manner than the hitherto sectoral approach.
Another recommendation is the review of the present environmental governance structure for enhanced capacity building that will put the ministry and its agencies in a better and stronger position to manage the Nigerian physical environment for productivity, poverty reduction and sustainability for the future generation.
The new environmental governance in Nigeria should enable the country to effectively conduct environmental assessment, research, and education, as well as being able to maintain and enforce national standards under a variety of environmental laws and regulations, in consultation with states and local governments.
The issue of consolidating and ensuring nation-wide dissemination of environmental laws and regulations through public education, advocacy, stakeholders’ consultations and research with appropriate enforcement mechanism in place was also raised by the experts.
They also underscored the need to incorporate into existing laws and popularise the recently globally approved concepts of environmental audit, environmental remediation and environmental justice, as well as empowering environment-related civil society organisations and research institutes.
The need to secure Presidential assent on the Bill on the establishment of the Climate Change Commission/Agency for the country was also revisited. The proposed body is supposed to be an independent and autonomous body under the Office of the President designed to be the sole policy-making arm of the government which shall be tasked to coordinate, monitor and evaluate the programmes and action plans of the government relating to climate change. Oladipo described the idea as probably the only way by which issues of climate change in will be given the desired national priority they deserve.
The Confab committee was also urged to make provisions in the Constitution to pursue a green growth and climate resilient development path with the strategic objectives of achieving energy security and a low carbon energy supply that supports the development of green industry and services for future green jobs that are likely to dictate global sustainable development; while achieving sustainable land use and water resource management that results in food security, appropriate and sustainable urban development and preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services and achieving social protection, improved health and disaster risk reduction that reduces the country’s vulnerability to climate change.
The final recommendation put forward by the experts was the need to reorganise the Ecological Fund Office to have a governance structure with appropriate checks and balances to make it more technically competent and effective with clear and measureable goals and objectives, as well as a results-oriented management culture.
The group in the submission reiterated that there must be clear linkages between the Fund and a national environmental action plan as well constructive relationship with relevant government agencies at the federal and state levels, intermediary organisations that provides services to clients, and other organisation in the environment community.
Oladipo further said: “This paper proposes the following three mutually dependent and mutually exclusive initiatives, namely: Constitutional reforms, statutory amendments and basic environmental protection law should be enacted.
“Imperative of constitutional reform: The 1999 Constitution mentions the environment only once, in an ambiguous provision (Section 10), which is neither here nor there, while at the same time not making environmental rights justiciable. Thus it is suggested as follows: There is the urgent need to expand the scope of Chapter 4 (human rights provision) of the 1999 Constitution by incorporating enforceable fundamental rights to clean, healthy and satisfactory environment as in the African Charter, in Ghana, Uganda, Eritrea, South Africa etc. A new section 44 is proposed in the Constitution. Reform of the archaic rule of locus standi through the introduction of Section 6 (7) in the Constitution thus making environmental protection the duty of every one; Power to legislate should be more incisive so as to remove existing needless ambiguity with respect to legislative power on the environment. It is proposed that environment should be explicitly included on the Concurrent Legislative list in the Second Schedule to the Constitution.
“Under this sub-head, there is need to review, update and reform some principal enactments dealing with the environment such as are: The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) Act; the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Act; The National Environmental Management Agency (NEMA) Act; the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act ; the Oil Pipelines Act; and the Petroleum Act; the Minerals Acts and the Criminal Code Act to ensure increased fines through the introduction of proposed new sections 245, 246, 247 and 445 to the Code. (9) The Associated Gas re-injection Act to ensure elimination of gas flaring by October 1,2014 through the introduction of Section 3 to the Act and to incorporate the principle of General Application of the Act to all Oil and Gas Exploration and production activities in addition to making community involvement in the monitoring compliance with provisions of the Act mandatory through a proposed section 3(3) and; (10) The Tin (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act.”
Executive Director, Nigerian Environmental Study Action Team (NEST), and Delegate to the on-going National Conference, Professor Chinedum Nwajiuba, recently in Abuja confronts Environment Minister, Laurentia Mallam, with some issues of interest
Mallam
Some Nigerians, since the commencement of Committee work at the on-going National Conference, familiar with my work on Environment in the country, have written-in a number of concerns which they want brought to the Committee as well as to the Honourable Minister of Environment. Their interest as some of them wrote include making the issue of the environment national top priority that will be properly attended to, with sufficient finance, improved governance and supported by appropriate laws. There is the need to understand and appreciate that environment and sustainable development are major global, national and local issues that must be on the high scale in our development agenda. We cannot be on-lookers when other countries are addressing them at the highest level of governance.
Specifically we wish to highlight some issues which I believe you may already be familiar with. These issues are summarised as follows:
Why is it looking like the National Adaptation Strategy and Plan of Action on Climate Change in Nigeria (NASPA-CCN) which has been recommended to other countries by the UNFCC seeming abandoned by Government? The signal in the international community with respect to Nigeria’s image in relation to the NASPA-CCN by Government is not very positive. Let me reiterate that the NASPA-CCN is a product of intense research and collaboration among a broad spectrum of Nigerians and non-Nigerians that lasted five years. It is a very high quality document that is a classical case of evidence-driven policy.
Why does it seem there is the poor implementation of the Green Wall project, and South of Niger Republic greener than Northern Nigeria? Satellite and ground evidences are clear on this. There is no climatic or ecological factor why southern Niger should be greener than northern Nigeria. This was a subject of discussion at a meeting at the World Agro-forestry Centre in Nairobi last month. The world expects leadership from Nigeria, as the country has all it takes. The hypothesis is that the political leadership and will is not there.
Why the slow action on bringing in water to reverse the receding Lake Chad? The Ministry of Environment should consider emerging funding opportunities in the Green Climate Fund. This Fund is designed to support such huge activities. It is important to conceptualise this project as fund becomes available. It may be helpful to link this to security challenges in the Northeast region of Nigeria.
Why is Nigeria always late to almost all COP meetings as if an emergency? We saw that in Durban (2011) with newspaper headlines in Nigeria: “Nigeria absent in Durban”. The same happened in Doha (2012), and perhaps too in Warsaw (2013). Ahead of the Warsaw COP last year, Nigeria was absent at the African Ministers Conference on Environment (AMCEN) meeting in Gaborone, Botswana last year. It was personally painful to be attending on another platform the meeting in Gaborone, and seeing the Nigeria seat empty at a meeting African Ministers were to take a common position towards Warsaw COP. Many Nigerians are embarrassed by these. A new re-launched Nigeria, as our President has advocated, should be a more serious-minded place with her political leadership and technocrats more professional.
Is the problem insufficient budget for the Ministry of Environment, and Nigeria delegates to COPs always late, never prepared, and have to rely on donors? Is the problem the envelop funding mechanism? Is that a constraint to the Ministry of Environment? Will it help to have provision made for the COP as sub-head in the budget annually? Can the Ministry work towards funding of up to N150 million each year which can be deployed to proper preparation, having a Nigeria stand, have a delegation that includes investment forum in the area of climate change and includes Nigerian businesses and chambers of commerce? Will this not help in tapping opportunities in climate change?
How transparent are modalities for managing the ecological funds? Would it help to have the Ministry of Environment play more roles?
Why are there so many non-road-worthy vehicles on Nigeria roads polluting and harming health of our people?
Why is there tame handling of land and coastal erosion?
When will gas flaring end?
Why are top-of-science methods and international best practices for spills in petroleum-bearing communities and routes not used in Nigeria?
Salisu Dahiru, Head of Nigeria’s UN-REDD Programme
Ahead of Nigeria’s plan to launch its full implementation of the REDD+ programme with the inauguration of the National Advisory Council, government and non-state actors like the media and civil society have been urged to ensure strict adherence to the principles of equity and free, prior and informed consent that underpins the mechanism. National Network Coordinator of the Climate & Sustainable Development Network (CSDevNet), Atayi Babs, made this call at a review meeting on the outcome of a REDD+ Media Training Workshop that held in Abuja recently.
Reiterating its longstanding commitment to the Nigerian forests, the Network enjoined all stakeholders to ensure the emission-reducing activities that should fall under the REDD+ rubric in Nigeria must include, but not be limited to, governance programs encouraging the devolution of land rights to indigenous groups, establishment of conservation areas, sustainable forest management including selective harvesting of trees, establishment of agroforestry projects, payments for ecosystems services through international development funds, payments through ecosystems services through market mechanisms, voluntary conservation payments, commercial agricultural intensification, disbursement of efficient cook stoves to limit wood harvesting, establishment of alternative industries for forest dwellers to prevent clear cutting, training of local police forces to prevent deforestation, establishment and training in remote monitoring and mobile technology to improve policing and detection.
He said: “Concerns are already being raised by forestry stakeholders in Cross River State about the implications of REDD+ for equity, including the importance of equity for achieving effective carbon emission reductions from forests in Ekuri and since equity is a multifaceted concept that is understood differently by different actors and at different scales, there is more than ever before, a great need for informed media narratives that will denounce the portrayal of local users as ‘forest destroyers’ while correcting erroneous impressions about REDD+ discriminating against local communities that are already making demonstrable efforts conserve forest resources.”
This challenge, according to him, remains very crucial as “the success or failure of REDD+ in Nigeria will be largely dependent on how policy actors’ opinions and actions on REDD+ are presented in the public domain as well as the extent to which national REDD+ strategy and policies will be able to deliver equitable outcomes.”
Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) is primarily a market-based mechanism for achieving the effective reduction of carbon emissions from forests. The UN-REDD Programme is the United Nations collaborative initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) in developing countries. The Programme was launched in 2008 and builds on the convening role and technical expertise of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The UN-REDD Programme supports nationally-led REDD+ processes and promotes the informed and meaningful involvement of all stakeholders, including Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent communities, in national and international REDD+ implementation.
Residents of Ofante Community in Olamaboro Local Government area in Kogi State rolled out their drums recently at the commissioning of a public water project implemented by the Nigeria Environmental Study/Action Team (NEST) under a climate change initiative tagged the Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP).
Ogallah
A climate change and development expert, Samson Samuel Ogallah, however warned that it is not yet over as the community is still being faced with other developmental and climate change-related challenges. According to him, the impacts of climate change in the community is not only in the area of water stress, but also in other aspects such as the declining agricultural yield, increase temperature and unpredictable rainfall pattern that have rendered this naturally endowed agrarian community vulnerable to climate change.
Urgent intervention is needed to reduce the vulnerability of the community and build their resilience to the impacts of climate change, Ogallah added, pointing out that, as one of the communities rich in oil palm, economic trees and natural resources like iron-ore and large quantity of cement deposit, access to market through construction of good roads to link the community to wider market would boost the economic activity in the area, thereby providing alternative livelihood option to climate change adaptation.
Obviously elated at seeing the project becoming a reality in the community, Ogallah recalled a similar intervention when relief materials were provided to the community in 2011 when it was hit by rainfall havoc that rendered many homeless, while stressing the vulnerability of the community to the adverse impacts of climate change.
He called on the Kogi State Government to reciprocate the good gesture demonstrated by NEST through replicating similar projects in the community and road construction that opens up the community to wider market.
Ofante Community is strategically located in Kogi state as it boarders Enugu and Benue states, contributing to the micro-economic development of both states. Ogallah underscored the need for the Kogi State Government to develop an overarching climate change adaptation strategy and action plan, even as he underlined the urgent need to convene a Kogi State Environmental Summit to address the various environmental problems confronting the state.
Speaking during the grand breaking ceremony, Executive Director of NEST, Professor Chinedu Nwajiuba, called on the community to make effective use of the water facilities provided to them as, according to him, the organisation would continue to deliver on its mandate of touching the lives of many rural communities across Nigeria through its pro-poor development strategies. He was full of praise for the Ofante Community for its hospitality, show of commitment and sustained cooperation with NEST through the duration of the project.
Traditional Chief in the community, Chief Oguche Ekpa; home branch Chairman, Ofante Self Help Association (OSHA), James Oguche; and spokeperson of the community, Dickson Itodo, all thanked NEST for coming to the aid of the community and promised to make effective use of the facilities provided for the benefit of all the people.
The sum of $4.43 billion has been pledged by 30 donor countries for the Global
Environment Facility (GEF) to support developing countries’ efforts over the next four years to prevent degradation of the global environment.
The announcement, made at the Fourth Meeting for the Sixth Replenishment of GEF Trust Fund, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 16-17 April 2014, further stated that the funding would support projects in over 140 countries to tackle a broad range of threats to the global environment. These threats include climate change, deforestation, land degradation, extinction of species, toxic chemicals and waste, and threats to oceans and freshwater resources.
The GEF is the main global mechanism to support developing countries’ (including Nigeria) to take action to fulfill their commitments under the world’s major multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
“This is a significant development. We welcome the efforts of the GEF Secretariat and the commitments of donor governments to replenish the GEF capital and thus allow the GEF to continue to serve as the financial mechanism of the CBD and other MEAs,” said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary.
“This will ensure that the GEF maintains its support for developing countries and countries with economies in transitions to support the implementation of their commitments under the CDB, in particular the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity for 2011-2020 and its 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and the updated national biodiversity strategies and action plans and associated national targets.”
“However, this still serves as a reminder that donor countries failed to fulfil the target set at the Eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) in Hyderabad, India, to double the international financial flows by 2015 relative to the 2006-2010 average,” underlined Dias.
“This means that we have missed the opportunity to significantly increase the investment on biodiversity to increase the efforts for achieving the implementation of the Aichi Targets,” said Dias. “This limited effort of multilateral funding, which represents a 30% increase over the baseline of 2006-2010, puts undue pressure on bilateral funding, domestic funding and private funding to compensate for this shortcoming to meet the estimated funding gap if we hope to achieve the agreed Aichi Targets by 2020,” he said.
The conservation, restoration and sustainable use of biodiversity can provide solutions to a range of societal challenges. For example, protecting ecosystems and ensuring access to ecosystem services by poor and vulnerable groups are an essential part of poverty eradication. Failing to pay due attention to the global biodiversity agenda risks compromising the capacity of countries to eradicate poverty and to enhance human well-being, as well as their means to adapt to climate change, reduce their vulnerability to extreme natural disasters, to ensure food security, to ensure access to water and to promote access to health.
“Without adequate funding for the global biodiversity agenda the continual availability of biological resources and ecosystems services will be compromised and impact the capacity of the business sector to continue to operate and supply the market with products, services and employment,” said Dias. “I encourage all countries to ramp up their contributions complementary to the GEF Trust Fund to ensure a better and more sustainable future for us all.”
The CBD, which opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and entered into force in December 1993, 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.
With 193 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 and local communities, youth, NGOs, women and the business community.
The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is a subsidiary agreement to the Convention. It seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. To date, 166 countries plus the European Union have ratified the Cartagena Protocol. The Secretariat of the Convention and its Cartagena Protocol is located in Montreal.
The first class of five Rotary sponsored scholars has graduated with Master of Science degrees in Water Education from the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. The graduates now will apply their education to water and sanitation projects in their home countries of Argentina, Uganda, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana.
Associate Professor of Hydraulic Engineering, Dr. Micha Werner (left); Nigerian UNESCO-IHE student, Kenechukwu “Kaycee” Okoli (middle); and another student, Faris Qazi, estimating the water flow rate in a river basin, during a field work for the Hydraulic Engineering and River Basin Development specialisation programme, at Basin of La Bléone River near Digne les Bains, France
Established in 2011, the partnership between Rotary and UNESCO-IHE — the world’s largest graduate water education facility — addresses the global water and sanitation crisis by increasing the ranks of trained professionals critically needed to devise, plan and implement solutions in countries where communities lack access to clean water and safe sanitation. Rotary provides scholarship grants that enable local Rotary clubs and districts to select and sponsor eligible students to the program. Rotary members mentor the students throughout the program, building positive relationships that continue after graduation.
“We’re proud of the Rotary and UNESCO-IHE partnership and especially proud of our first class of Rotary water scholars, who will now use their expertise to develop sustainable water and sanitation solutions in their home countries,” said Rotary Foundation Trustee Stephen R. Brown. “The mentoring of the students by Rotary clubs and Rotary members – during their studies at UNESCO-IHE, as well as after they return home – is essential to the success of the scholarship program. These relationships and networks will enable students to effectively implement their skills in their own local communities. Their work to improve water and sanitation conditions will have a positive, lasting impact around the world.”
His sentiments are echoed by UNESCO-IHE Rector András Szöllösi-Nagy. “I am confident that as these young professionals return home, they will continue to play a vital role in managing our water systems in a sustainable way for future generations,” he said. “As alumni, they will remain part of the largest network of water professionals and become part of an extensive network of fellow Rotary scholarship recipients and Rotarians worldwide.”
For example, graduate Bernice Asamoah, of Ghana, plans a hygiene project that will use solar power to disinfect water for communal toilet facilities.
Graduate Kenechukwu “Kaycee” Okoli, of Nigeria, knows the value of public education, especially to empower children to become change agents. “The objective is to visit schools and to teach children and adolescents basic sanitation habits,” he said.
Another graduate, Temesgen Adamu, of Ethiopia, points to the World Health Organisation’s statistics indicating that about 2.5 billion people worldwide do not have access to improved sanitation, and over 783 million people lack access to clean drinking water. “In my home country, the water quality is poor, safe water and sanitation facilities are inaccessible and water based diseases widespread,” Adamu said.
Graduate Gonzalo Duró, of Argentina, said he learned the critical importance of “cooperation between partners, institutions and professionals” in developing solutions to water and sanitation issues, while Uganda’s Godfrey Baguma appreciated the practical nature of the studies. “I am now able to address water and sanitation issues in a more integrated and technical manner,” Baguma said, adding that his interactions with Rotary members helped make Delft “a home away from home.”
Building on the success of the first class, the second class of students – 16 in total – began graduate studies in October 2013 and will graduate in 2015.
The UNESCO-IHE graduates become part of a vast network of Rotary Foundation alumni, consisting of 120,000 leaders and change agents around the world. Since 1947, more than 43,000 students and fellows have received Rotary scholarships supporting studies in a variety of disciplines representing a total investment of more than $557 million.
Oil pollution in the Niger Delta. Photo credit: longbaby.com
The disclosure that oil has been discovered in commercial quantity in the Lagos offshore, within the confines of the Dahomey Basin, has been greeted with mixed feelings.
Activist and President, Friends of the Earth International, Nnimmo Bassey, made this known recently at a workshop in Lagos titled: “Oil in Lagos: What is in it for the planet?”
Bassey said the discovery and exploration for oil in the Niger Delta area for decades has made the region the most polluted area in the world due to countless oil spills that have not been cleaned up.
He that exploring oil in Lagos would boost the economy of the state but the environmental and socio-economic consequences are far more damaging.
Struggle for resource control from oil exploration has brought about the nation’s economy solely dependent on oil with other key sectors like agriculture being neglected, he lamented, adding that it has likewise led to increased level of violence and insecurity like kidnapping, communal crisis, oil spillage resulting in loss of bio-diversity and damage to arable land.
According to Bassey, it is better to leave the oil in the soil as demand for fossil fuel is one of the key factors responsible for global carbon emission that causes climate change.
Even though the world cannot imagine living without oil, but they have to because oil is not renewable, he concluded.
Representative of the Commissioner for the Ministry of Environment, Titi Fadipe, said oil discovery in Lagos would further boost its economy and create job opportunities for the unemployed.
Fadipe said all the assessments and policies needed to ensure that oil exploration positively impacts the environment would be undertaken by the state government.
Another speaker, Dr. Abiodun Olusogo from the Lagos State Marginalised Communities Forum, said oil exploration in Lagos would further increase the number of displaced and marginalised persons. Presently, a lot of indigenous Lagosians are being displaced due to land grabbing by the rich and powerful without proper consultation with the people. The rights of indigenous people is fundamental if the Lagos State Government plans to explore oil, he added.
Programme Director of Bailiff Africa and organisers of the workshop, Funmi Oyatogun, stressed that the workshop was geared towards increasing awareness among Lagosians on the discovery of oil in commercial quantity in the state.
Oyatogun pointed out that Bailiff Africa is concerned about the participation of the youths in environmental matters, lending credence to the fact that majority of the participants are young people.
“Around the world young people are becoming more participatory in governance and Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind. Again, oil exploration is an environmental issue that scientists have proven is responsible for climate change and we want to live in a friendly environment. We therefore should be concerned about how government policies made today will impact on us tomorrow,” she stated.
A participant, Peter Sohe, who hails from Badagry, disclosed that gas flaring in the area is affecting the health of the people as well as their livelihood as fishing in some areas of Badagry has reduced.
He urged Lagosians not to be too excited about oil discovery in the state as a visit to the area where gas is being flared in Badagry will make them come to terms with the environmental impact of oil exploration.
