The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Environmentalists

  • Environmentalists beg Buhari to implement UNEP Report

    Environmentalists beg Buhari to implement UNEP Report

    Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth Nigeria has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure quick implementation of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) report on the Ogoni oil spill.

    ERA/FoEN’s Executive Director Godwin Uyi said during an advocacy campaign yesterday in Abuja that non-implementation of the report since it was submitted in 2011 has caused hardship for the people of Niger Delta, especially the Ogoni.

    Uyi added that it became important to hasten remedial and implementation efforts as it would take about 30 years to complete the cleanup process, as detailed by UNEP.

    He said Shell, the multinational company responsible for the spillage, had devised means  to evade compensation to the affected communities.

    According to him, the report identified extensive pollution of creeks for the last 50 years, used for fishing, farmland and drinking water.

    “Ogale was one of the 10 communities where drinking water was identified as polluted. In several communities contamination was found at depths of five metres underground. About 27 recommendations were made, but none  have been implemented,” he stated.

    However, Uyi urged the President to expedite action, adding that on August 2015, he promised to ensure that the polluted communities are cleaned.

    He advised the Federal Government to set up an environmental restoration fund for Ogoniland with initial capital of $1 billion contributed by the oil sector and government.

    Uyi emphasized the need to set up institutional frameworks for the implementation and compensation for victims and survivors.

  • Environmentalists seek probe of explosion at Agip oil field

    Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has called for probe into Sunday’s explosion that killed three persons at Agip Oil field in Bayelsa.

    The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) had on Tuesday confirmed that a pipeline blast at an oil field, operated by the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in Bayelsa, killed three people on Sunday.

    ERA/FoEN, an environmental rights NGO, made the call while reacting to the pipeline blast in Olugboro Community, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area.

    Mr Morris Alagoa, Head of Field Operation at ERA/FoEN in Bayelsa, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa on Wednesday that the explosion was one too many and urged the government to investigate the cause.

    He expressed regret that a similar explosion occurred in July 2015 at another oil field operated by the NAOC in Southern Ijaw area of Bayelsa.

    “The news of another tragic incident in the oil industry, which claimed three lives and several persons sustained various degrees of injuries, came to Environmental Rights Action (ERA) as a great shock.

    “While industrial and other accidents are part of the realities of our existence, some are preventable.

    “And, this is where, we in ERA, will not stop calling on the authorities and regulators of the oil industry to make safety and best practices the mantra of the industry; not just profit.

    “We are calling for a well-constituted panel of inquiry made up of professionals, stakeholders, Civil Society Organisations to investigate this incident, and the recommendations and report made public.

    “It is worrisome because; it is another sad commentary of the unsafe working environment and loss of lives.

    “This is more so considering the fact that it happened less than a year from the Azuzuama incident which claimed over 12 lives last July,” Alagoa said.

    Officials of Nigerian Agip Oil Company declined comments on the explosion.

    Mr Fillippo Cotalini, International Media Relations Manager at Eni, parent company of NAOC did not respond to an email seeking his comments on the incidence.

  • Environmentalists hold dialogue

    Environmentalists last week met in Abuja to fashion out how to control waste in the country.

    At the forum titled: Ninth national stakeholders forum on environmental best practices in waste control: initiatives and innovatiowns, which included senior officials of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), among others, participants sought effective engagement in waste control, economic incentives and reward system in waste control. They creation of wealth from waste and e-waste control for environmental protection and sustainable development.

    In a paper titled: Towards effective stakeholders’ engagement in waste control, former managing director, Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Ola Oresanya, canvassed awareness campaigns for proper waste management habit/practices and use of establishment of relevant communication channels to reach stakeholders, especially those who generate and dispose waste recklessly.

    Also at the one-week event were House of Representatives’ Committee on Environment Chairman, Obiora Chidoka;  representative of Minister of Environment, who is Director-General, Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), John Alonge; Director, Partnership and Education, NESREA, Sam Aniefon Akpabio; his Environment Quality Control (EQC) counterpart, Mr Simon Joshua and Valentine Opone of the National Environment Society.

  • Environmentalists fault 2030 deadline on gas flaring

    Environmentalists fault 2030 deadline on gas flaring

    The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has accused the Federal Government of conniving with the World Bank to extend the deadline for gas flaring to 2030.

    Speaking at a news conference yesterday in Lagos, the ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Dr. Godwin Uyi Ojo, said the group rejected the deadline set for termination of gas flaring, stressing that the extant laws had declared the activity illegal.

    Ojo said the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has subscribed to “business-as-usual” method in conducting environmental protection. He said the government had not announced its environmental policy to save the nation from the effect of global warming.

    He said: “At the just-concluded 2015 Paris Climate Conference, the World Bank and Nigerian government hatched another crooked plan to end gas flaring by 2030. We consider this as hypocritical, deceptive and undue interference by World Bank on national sovereignty in a country where gas flaring has been declared illegal since 1984. We call on the government to end gas flaring now and not wait till 2030 when it will be too late.”

    The group advised government to diversify the nation’s energy market to renewable sources of energy.

    He said the outcome of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference would do little to reduce the impacts of climate change in Africa. It said the treaty had limited and vague framework to reduce carbon emission, which contributes to the rise in global temperature.

     

  • Environmentalists harp on sustainable development

    Environmentalists harp on sustainable development

    Environment stakeholders have called on all industrial concerns, business prompters and governments across the world to embark on sustainable use of earth resources for the betterment of mankind.

    The call was made recently during a one-day programme organized by SMEFUNDS, Carbon Credit Network in partnership with the World Bank and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in commemoration of this year’s Earth Day.

    The theme of this year’s Earth Day Celebration was “What would you rather do or say to save the Earth?”

    Opening discussion at the forum, the Chief Executive Officer, SMEFUNDS Mr. Femi Oye, lamented the degradation of the earth through unscrupulous human activities.

    According to him, some of the uncoordinated human activities which have inflicted serious damages on the mother earth include indiscriminate felling of trees, high intensity of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium NPK application in the agricultural sector.

    Apart from destroying land nutrients, he also stated that NPK has the potential to impact negatively on the human reproductive system, thereby resulting in low sperm count in men.

    He then implored participants to respond to all these diverse effects on the mother earth adding that “for us to live in a future we desire, we need to act now.”

    Oye also called on all Nigerians to imbibe the spirit of planting trees, explaining that it was through that the health of the people and that of the earth could be protected.

    In her presentation entitled, “Going Green”, the CEO, ARARAT-JODI Consult, Mrs. Irene Adepitan, stated that man is responsible for the alteration in the state of the earth which is manifesting in rising temperature, insisting that it is also the responsibility of man to bring it to its healthy state.

    According to her, restoring the earth to its healthy status is not by choice, but a must, failure of which may spell doom not only for the present generation, but also those coming behind.

    She linked the wave of disasters springing across the world to the impact of human activities on the mother earth, adding that “the earthquake is consequently the impact of human activities on the mother earth.”

    A communiqué’ issued at the end of the one day programme, urged the participants and all other actors in the environment sector to pursue, or follow-up on the Nigerian legislature to make laws and resolution to save the earth., reduce unnecessary carbon emission activities, pursue the programme of reuse product, recycle and reduce waste.

    Apart from that, individuals were also urged to switch to renewable energy sources educate self and neighbors on the negative impact of  climate change, switch to use of energy saving bulbs, organize or sort waste products appropriately before disposing and dumping and promote the use of organic fertilizer.