Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has urged Nigerians to keep oceans and rivers free of plastics to save fishes and sea birds, ultimately mankind that feed on both.
AEPB Head of Information and Outreach unit, Mallam Muktar Ibrahim, gave the advice in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Saturday, May 11, 2019.
Ibrahim was speaking on the Commemoration of the 2019 World Migratory Birds Day with the theme: “Protect Birds: Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution”.
The 2019 World Migratory Birds Day holds on every May 11 to raise global awareness campaign on the need for the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats.
According to Ibrahim, oceans and rivers must be kept free of plastics to save the fishes and the sea birds.
“As the world marks the 2019 edition, we must ensure that we give practical backing to this year’s global theme.
“We should also ensure that the birds get a hospitable welcome, wherever their migration takes them,” Ibrahim said.
He said that people must stand with AEPB on its campaign against indiscriminate tree felling, as it destroys the natural habitat for forest creatures and contributes to climate change, global warming and recession of the oceans.
According to him, the leaves of trees and plants can serve as a non harmful alternative to plastics.
“The home-grown blueprint project of the AEPB is geared towards turning waste to wealth and ensuring less plastics in the environment.
“AEPB will continue to campaign on waste segregation from source in order to minimise the quantity of inorganic wastes that are disposed into the environment and water bodies.
“Plastic pollution especially, is of constant concern because of the grave danger it poses to marine life and living things that derive nutrition from marine creatures, including man and seabirds,” he said.
Ibrahim recalled that the theme for the 2018 World Environment Day celebrated on June 5, was “Beat Plastic Pollution”.
“This was to highlight the potential danger of plastic on the environment and to elicit urgent positive action to mitigate it through a deliberate policy to stop the use of plastic entirely, especially the single-use plastics.
“These plastics clog water ways and end up in rivers and oceans and get ingested by fishes and end up on our dinner tables and the stomach of birds,” he said.
By Deji Abdulwahab
