UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has called for more accelerated action from governments, international organisations and civil society groups on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), for sustainable development far beyond 2015.

MDGs was adopted by world leaders in the year 2000, as a 15-year roadmap to fight poverty, hunger and disease, protect the environment and expand education, basic health and women’s empowerment.

This was contained in his message on Monday in New York on 500-days to mark the conclusion of the MDGs.

He said it was so unfortunate that there are many fires raging around the world today, which include political turmoil, bloodshed, public health emergencies and human rights abuses.

Ban said there was flame of hope and encouraging progress in the global drive to improve the lives of the world’s poorest through the MDGs.

He said this week marks a milestone on the journey, as the world was now 500 days from the conclusion of the MDGs.

Ban noted that quietly yet cumulatively, against the predictions of cynics, the MDGs have helped unite, inspire and transform.

He said the global poverty has been cut to half.

“More girls are in school, more families have better access to improved water sources, more mothers are surviving child birth and more children are living healthier lives,’’he said.

“We are making huge inroads in fighting malaria, tuberculosis and other killer diseases, I have met many individuals who owe their survival to this campaign,’’he added.

Ban said in spite of this, millions are still struggling against extreme poverty and inequality.

“Too many communities have no proper sanitation, many families are still being left behind, and our world faces the clear and present danger of climate change,’’ he said.

Ban said now is the time for MDG momentum, as the ideas and inspiration of young people would be especially critical in this effort and their role must grow even more.

That is why I will mark the 500-day MDGs moment at UN headquarters with education advocate, Malala Yousafzai and 500 young people.

Ban said action in four areas can help fuel progress, and it includes making strategic investments in health, education, energy and sanitation, with a special focus on empowering women and girls, which boosts results across the board.

He said focusing on the poorest and most vulnerable countries, communities and social groups that have the toughest road to progress despite their best efforts.

Ban added that keeping financial promises has become imperative, even though this was a difficult budgetary times.

“But budgets should never be balanced on the backs of society’s weakest individuals,’’ he said.

He also advocated deepening cooperation among governments, civil society, the private sector and other networks around the world.

Ban said this would assist in making the MDGs the most successful global anti-poverty push in history.

He said even though the challenges are daunting, yet the action would save lives, build a solid foundation for sustainable development far beyond 2015 and help lay the groundwork for lasting peace and human dignity.

“We have 500 days to accelerate MDG action, let’s make every day count,’’he said. (Xinhua)

The cheering news continues for Nigeria as four more Lagos residents who had been held at the Lagos Treatment Centre have been released after being certified as free from the dreaded disease.

Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, said this in a statement released on Monday.

Chukwu, in the statement signed by his special assistant on Media and Communication, Dan Nwomeh, said that the four discharged persons are made up of two male medical doctors, a female nurse as well as a female patient.

Chukwu explained that the three medical personnel had participated in the treatment of Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American, who was the first person to die of the disease in Nigeria. He added that the fourth person happened to be at First Consultants Hospital, Obalende, Lagos where Patrick Sawyer was brought to from the airport.

“The Minister of Health has announced that four additional confirmed cases of EVD who have been managed successfully and are now disease free have been discharged today(Monday).

“They include two male medical doctors and one female nurse. The three participated in the treatment of the index case(Sawyer) while the fourth person was a female patient at the time the index case was on admission.

“This brings to five, the total number of patients diagnosed with EVD who have now been discharged from hospital.”

An announcement by the minister on Saturday had indicated that a female doctor, the first Nigerian to be diagnosed of EVD, had been discharged .

He added further that Nigeria recorded 12 cases of EVD in all, along with four deaths including that of Patrick Sawyer, although he revealed that 195 Nigerians remain under surveillance in Lagos and Enugu.

The Lagos State Water Corporation (LSWC) on Monday said it spent over N4 billion yearly to run its operations of providing potable water to houses in the state.

The Group Managing Director of (LSWC), Mr Shayo Holloway, who made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, said that making water potable was expensive.

According to him, if you imagine what goes into producing water, it is painful to see water leakages all over, especially with the corporation’s flat billing system because the property are not metered.

“That is why we want to meter property so that everybody will feel the need to conserve water.

“A lot of money is being wasted through water wastage and we are doing everything to correct that.

“We are working with the private sector in ensuring massive reduction in water wastage in the state.

“We have started installing meters in homes. As at today, we have installed about 4, 000 meters comprising 3, 000 in Ikeja and 1, 000 in Lekki and we are installing more.

“Our long term goal is to have every home metered,’’ he said.

According to him, metering allows the consumer to know what he is consuming and to pay for water consumed.

Holloway said metering would reduce wastage as a lot of water was being lost within houses from leaking tanks and Water Closets that people did not border to quickly rectify.

“But when there is a meter it will read all those leakages and that will make people to be more proactive towards addressing leakages within their households.

“So, what that means is that we will then have more water available for more people.

“They meters are working and will work even more in multi-tenement buildings,” he said.

Holloway said that because each property was supplied by one service connection, that service connection would be metered.

He said that it was for the occupants of multi-tenement buildings to resolve how they would pay for water consumed. (NAN)

The Food and Agriculture Organisation  (FAO)  has attributed the slow pace of agricultural development in Africa to poor implementation of policies.

The FAO Representative to Nigeria, Mrs Louise Setshwaelo, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.

Setshwaelo, said that the continent did not lack of good policies to promote agriculture, “but the will power to implement those policies’’.

She said that better implementation of policies was one of the areas FAO was collaborating with various governments in Africa to address malnutrition in the continent.

“We develop a lot of policies in Africa and honestly what I can say is that most African countries have good policies.

“What is lacking is implementation of those good policies and I think the political will has to be there,’’ she said.

The FAO representative also stressed the need to strengthen infrastructure to support agriculture in Africa, adding that irrigation was most under-utilised in the continent.

She urged African governments to ensure that investments in the agricultural sector were sustainable.

Setshwaelo said that increased access to land, credit and capacity building would further encourage the participation of youths and women in agriculture.

“We have women who make up to 50 per cent of the agriculture labour; women who are farmers themselves.

“Women actually have very limited access to resources, first is the issue of land and secondly is the issue of credit, they are the least people who are able to access these resources they need for production,’’ she said.

She urged youths to avail themselves of the opportunities in agriculture to become actively involved in developing the sector.

The FAO representative said there was need to build the capacity of young people to add value to the value chain.

“We need to build the capacity of not only the older population but also to encourage young people.

“It is not just about production, they can also be service providers, they can also be input providers, marketers and they add value to every knot of the value chain they can go into.’’

According to her, if agriculture receives improved participation of youths and women, it will reduce post harvest losses recorded in the sector.

“Because if you are producing little and 30 per cent of that is lost as post harvest losses, the chances of really reducing hunger also go down,’’ she said. (NAN)