23.8 C
Lagos
Monday, October 7, 2024
Home Blog Page 2011

IIED: How climate change threatens food security of urban poor

Michael Simire
-
0

Policies to increase food security in the global South focus too much on rural food production and not enough on ensuring poor people can access and afford food, especially in urban areas, says a report published by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

It warns that climate change will only make this policy gap worse, because climate change impacts will affect not only harvests but also the systems that people use to transport, store and buy and sell food.

“Food security is back on the agenda thanks to rising prices and the threat that climate change poses to agricultural production,” says the report’s author Dr Cecilia Tacoli. “But policies that focus on rural food production alone will not tackle the rising food insecurity in urban areas. We also need policies that improve poor people’s ability to access and afford food, especially in urban areas.”

Most people in urban areas must buy their food and this makes the urban poor particularly at risk. Any climate-induced disruption to food production, transport and storage – either in the urban area itself or in distant farmland – can affect food supplies and prices in urban areas.

Yet most policies that aim to increase food security focus solely on boosting production from farms and fisheries in rural areas.

“The journey that food takes from a rural producer to an urban consumer involves many steps,” says Dr Tacoli. “It must travel through formal and informal systems as it is stored, distributed and sold. Each one of these steps is a point of potential vulnerability to climate change. For consumers, this will mean sharp and sudden increases in food prices.”

The report highlights the link between income poverty and food insecurity in urban areas. For most low-income urban citizens food represents a sizeable portion of the money they spend. Even small increases in price would therefore have big impacts of food security, with citizens reducing the amount and quality of the food they buy.

For the residents of informal urban settlements, food insecurity is also the consequence of lack of space to store and cook food, lack of time to shop and prepare meals, inadequate access to clean water and often non-existing sewage systems. These settlements are disproportionately affected by floods, typhoons, heat waves and other impacts of climate change because they tend to be located in areas more exposed to these events, and because they lack the most basic infrastructure.

Tacoli says that governments must rise to these challenges by ensuring that policies can protect the urban poor from food insecurity linked to rising prices, inadequate living conditions and the effects of climate change in both rural and urban areas. Decent and stable employment is essential but not sufficient: adequate infrastructure and housing and access to formal and informal markets are just as important.

“Climate change threatens to multiply many of the big challenges that face the world’s urban poor,” says Tacoli. “Policymakers need a far better understanding of what it means to be poor in an urban centre.”

Climate change: Lagos may upgrade urban plans

Michael Simire
-
0

The Lagos State Government has been called upon to review and upgrade its urban development master plan to include climate change and adaptation considerations.

Similarly, participants at the recently-held 5th Lagos State Climate Change Summit agreed in a communique released at the end of the event that a well-articulated state-level housing and urban policy that mainstreams climate change mitigation and adaptation into the house building sector should be developed and implemented for more environmentally-friendly and climate-resilient homes that will meet the requirements of the rapidly expanding population in the state.

Lagos Environment Commissioner, Tunji Bello

Besides ensuring a multi-disciplinary approach to the planning, design, construction and management of urban infrastructure, the state government was urged to continue to pursue the development and implementation of a long-term strategic and inclusive vision that is embedded into the current planning, especially land use allocations, while promoting infrastructure with integrated design solutions.

Indeed, government was likewise told to continue its efforts to utilise multi-modal mass transport system, such as the BRT and water transport, in promoting climate-resilient transportation; even as sustainability in transportation system should be improved by integrating telecommunication access to reduce demand for mobility or transportation.

“Governments at all levels should promote climate-smart agriculture and strengthen capacity of small-holder farmers to mainstream climate change impacts into their activities for the attainment of national food security,” declared the communiqué, calling on the authorities to integrate food security and sustainable agriculture into their policies to promote sustainable rural livelihoods in the face of climate change.

A word of advice went to the Federal Government, which was tasked to provide for the private sector an enabling environment to aggressively pursue climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives in the interest of green development. The FG, along with state and local government, were urged to properly mainstream climate change into their infrastructural development for resilience and sustainability.

Lagos Governor, Babatunde Fashola

Lagos Environment Commissioner, Tunji Bello, on his part, charged the Federal Government to live up to its responsibility by collaborating with the state on how best to reduce the effect of climate change in the bid to develop a sustainable policy framework on the topic.

He expressed dissatisfaction on the manner the Federal Government is handling the climate change issue, stressing that the effects are transboundary, and hence the need for more awareness on global warming.

He said, “Nigeria is vulnerable to climate change and the impacts are already manifesting in the country. We find must find a solution to it now because of the future generations of our country.”

Bello hinted that the primary aim of the annual summit is to create more awareness and change the perception of the populace so as to finding workable solutions to climate change.

He disclosed that the Lagos State Government would develop a work plan on solutions proffered at the summit in order to achieve set goals and objectives.

Bassey: 20 years of ERA’s struggle

Michael Simire
-
0
Bassey: 20 years of ERA’s struggle

Erstwhile Executive Director of the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Nnimmo Bassey, has said that the secret of the organisation’s success over the past two decades of its existence lies in the fact that it viewed every scene of environmental harm as a crime scene.

Bassey

He noted on Tuesday in Abuja in a presentation to commemorate 20 years of the civil society organisation that, even though ERA sometimes resorted to civil actions as a measure of resistance, it was obvious that these were not sufficient to stem environmental crimes.

Bassey, an architect and head of ERA/FoEN since 1993, wants environmental laws to be fine-tuned to make it possible for criminal charges with long jail terms to be pressed against individuals and corporate bodies who reap profits from environmental damage.

“Ecocide would be an appropriate umbrella law to confront the massive lawlessness that run rampant across Nigeria and many nations of the world today,” he submitted.

The activist revealed that he and his colleagues remained focused over the years and especially during the difficult days when Nigeria was under military dictatorship “because we had dedicated ERA people and because we had an unambiguous philosophical compass that ensured we did not drift. Today I look back with satisfaction that ERA people, whether in or outside ERA, have stayed the course.”

He added: “Over these years, we have suffered persecution, faced afflictions and enjoyed triumphs. Our triumph has been that our work with communities impacted by deforestation, land grabs, oil spills, gas flares and pollutions of all types has succeeded because the people have resolutely stood against the pushers of these harmful practices.

“Today I look back across 20 short years of momentous changes. I am happy that the four persons (Oronto Douglas, Nick Ashton Jones, Godwin Ojo and I) who brought this group to be are still engaged in the defence of Mother Earth in one way or the way. I remember our days of challenging harmful big dams in Northern Nigeria, massive logging in forests in many of our southern states. I remember our struggles against oil spills and gas flares. I remember our battles against wholesale destruction of communities by government to pave the way for corporate claws to sink deeper into our lands.

“We have fought steadily against the wasting of our environment and livelihoods by the petroleum sector. The world’s addiction to carbon-high life has elevated dirty oil companies to the level of the gods. Easy oil has now given way to tough oil. The scraping of the bottom of the barrel has thrown up dangerous extractive methods and spewing ever more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and sentencing the world to climate catastrophe. And while global leaders would not commit to provide funds for adaptation and resilience building, multiples of what is needed is being expended on wars fought for profit at the expense disposable lives – sometimes in the name of exporting democracy. In the era of peak oil it appears we have passed over peak democracy without attaining democracy in the first place.

“Today I call upon all of us to tell the emperor that he is naked, to tell the promoters of neoliberalism that they are running (at one spot) on empty tanks! Let us shout it out loud: it is time to leave the oil in the soil; from Yasuni to Ogoni, to Kaiso in the Rift Valley to Lofoten in Norway. And if Nigeria is serious about fighting global warming, gas flaring must be stopped immediately. Shutting down oil production in order to tackle the gas flaring problem makes economic sense if we consider the implications of catastrophic global warming. And of course the government must halt oil theft, halt the regime of unaccounted for oil through lack of metering. Do I need to add that delays in cleaning up Ogoni land and other polluted parts of Nigeria are an unacceptable disregard for the right to life and to a safe environment of the people.

“Today, while celebrating our 20 years of marching on for environmental rights, I remember individuals and communities who have greatly inspired me as a person: Ken Saro-Wiwa, executed by the state on false charges on 10 November 1995. I remember the peoples of Umeuchem, Bakalori, Odi, Odioma, Ilaje, Gbaramatu and others. I salute the mentoring I continue to receive from our foremost community activist, Comrade Che Ibegwura who, at over 80 years, keeps trudging on the path of environmental justice. I salute Sister Majella Macarron, a Catholic nun from Ireland whose gift of books in those early days helped to frame our work. I salute my colleagues in ERA. I salute my wife and family for unstinting support over the years. I salute all our comrades across Africa and across the continents of the world. Your presence here today is of great significance to me and to us.

“As we look back, we also look forward. Twenty years have passed. Twenty more will come; and much more still. The road is long and the runners will be many. The baton must be passed on. And so, while remaining in the trench with the foot soldiers, it gives me great pleasure to hand that baton to my brother and comrade, Godwin Ojo. And I thank you for marking this day with us.”

Megachurches and environmental concerns

Michael Simire
-
0

A nationwide economic downturn that emerged over a decade ago – and appears to persist even as we speak – spelt a depression in the manufacturing sector, and forcing a considerable number of industrialists out of business. Some relocated to neighbouring West African countries.

Canaan Land, Ota, Ogun State

Worsened by the trademark erratic power supply, more industrial spaces became vacant, leading to a glut and depression in the real estate market. Empty warehouses as well as dormant and decaying factories littered everywhere.

Incidentally, a new spiritual consciousness was sweeping across the land. The upsurge in Christian religious activities meant bigger and more financially-capable churches, as cash-strapped manufacturers surrendered their properties to a more formidable religious sector.

With cash in the bank to back the desire for a more spacious place of worship to accommodate their continuously expanding congregation, churches soon began buying up the industrial properties.

Instead of goods, the warehouses began stocking salvaged souls for the Lord.

Churches also put into new use institutional and commercial buildings like town halls, night clubs, events centres and hotels.

The churches did not stop there. More daring and ambitious ones left the built-up cities and headed to outskirt locations where land is cheap and abundant. They acquired acres upon acres of virgin land, cleared it and built from the scratch.

While the Living Faith World Outreach Centre (or Winners Chapel) built “Canaan Land” in Ota, Ogun State, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) came up with “Redemption Camp”, even as the Mountain of Fire & Miracles Ministry (MFMM) designed “Prayer City”, both within the Ibafo-Mowe axis in Ogun State by the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. These mixed-use centres occupy camp grounds, worship centres, residential and commercial complexes as well as educational facilities.

The churches are also redefining the tertiary education sector with the establishment of universities, which have given the real estate sector and the general economy a boost. RCCG (Redeemer’s University), Winners Chapel (Covenant University), Foursquare Gospel Church (McPherson University), Baptist Church (Bowen University) and the Seventh Day Adventist Church (Babcock University) have all established tertiary institutions.

Perhaps in the bid to provide shelter for needy faithful, some churches have ventured into direct real estate development as well as the establishment of Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs). The RCCG, for example, has been linked with the Lagos-based Jubilee-Life Savings & Loans Limited, which built the “Jubilee Golden Estate” that houses the church’s pastors and worshippers.

Observers have listed the RCCG among the world’s top cadre of mega churches. It has thousands of parishes nationwide and is present in over 70 countries. The RCCG operates over 40 primary schools all over Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, as well as some secondary schools and maternity centres in Lagos, Oyo, Ondo and Kano states.

The church has over 150 parishes in North America, but its Dallas (Texas, United States of America) version of the Redemption Camp on 250 acres of land may have set the tone for the church’s inclusion in the “exclusive club” of big-time religious bodies. Texas is ranked the second US state with most mega church members, behind California and ahead of Georgia.

On the global stage, RCCG, Winners Chapel, Christ Embassy and Celestial Church of Christ are some notable mega churches of Nigerian origin.

But grumblings by neighbours and local officials who claim that the “giant houses of worship” cause noise, traffic jams and environmental damage seem to be getting louder.

Residents in and around the Lagos-Sango Ota highway complain of traffic bottlenecks as a result of the activities of Winners Chapel, not only on Sundays, as the exodus to Canaan Land compounds the already-chaotic traffic situation. The Sagamu-Ibafo stretch of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, which has become a haven for religious bodies’ camps and prayer grounds, is a traffic dark spot.

Besides concerns related to noise pollution, on-street parking during church services reduces the right-of-way and narrows down the rate of vehicular movement. Ninety percent of the existing places of worship are said to be operating without a planning permit.

A worried clergyman insists that the church, supposedly a divine instrument of order and excellence, has not risen up to the occasion to address what could be corrected in the Nigerian environment.

He says: “Nigerian churches are full of people on Sundays but the influence on the society between Monday and Saturday is another story – it is almost zero. Otherwise, how could one explain the pile of trash that’s been sitting next to a church building (name withheld) for so long and church members come and go but never feel it is their responsibility to the community to do anything about it?

“But the Jesus saves! And he does. But he won’t clear the trash, repair the streets, clean the street gutters and get rid of unwanted structures.

“If Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the RCCG mobilises members of that powerful and influential organisation to come together for a day of trash-clearing in Lagos, they will respond.

“Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel can mobilise the 50,000-plus church attendees to collect their offerings in church on a particular Sunday in a month and dedicate it to repairing one road at a time. Before you know it, knowing the competitive juice in the blood of our people, other churches would follow the leadership of Winners Chapel.”

 

By Michael Simire

World Water Day 2013: WASH journalists urge govt to fulfill commitments

Michael Simire
-
0

The Water and Sanitation Media Network, a coalition of journalists reporting water and sanitation issues in Nigeria, has called on the Federal Government to accelerate access to safe drinking water and sanitation services by fulfilling the commitments it made at high level meetings to leverage additional financing to develop the nation’s water and sanitation sector.

Open defacation

In a statement released to mark the World Water Day, March 22, the Water and Sanitation Media Network notes with regret that the Federal Government has failed to fulfill none of the 26 commitments it made at the high level meetings.

“Nigeria has not fully achieved any of the 26 WASH commitments it voluntarily made in several high level meetings between 2000 and 2012. These commitments made at four high level meetings between 2000 and 2012: the World Summit in Johannesburg in 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. But none of them have been fulfilled so far by the Nigerian Government,” said the Network.

The body says ‘this explains why 35 million Nigerians still defecate in the open, about 90 million are without access to safe drinking water, and 130,000 under-five Nigerian children die annually from preventable water borne disease.

Some of the unfulfilled commitments are listed to include:

1. Harmonisaiton of water and sanitation policies;

2. Promoting WASH in schools;

3. Intensify increasing water and sanitation budgets by 15%;

4. Ensuring  at least 0.5% of the Gross Domestic Product to promoting sanitation and hygiene;

5. Declaring access to water and sanitation a human right;

6. Encouraging state and local governments to  create budget lines for sanitation;

7. Scaling up community-led total sanitation in the 36 states;

8. Increasing national access to improved sanitation to 65% by 2015; and

9. Increasing national  access to improved water by at least 5%  by 2014.

The body therefore called on the Federal Government in Nigeria to keep its promises and initiate practical policies, programmes and projects to develop the country’s WASH sector, and improve access to WASH services.

As the World marks the 2013 World Water Day, the Water and Sanitation Media Network notes: “Access to improved water and sanitation still remains a major challenge in Nigeria. Water and sanitation coverage in Nigeria are among the lowest in the world.  According to the 2008 report of the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), Nigeria is in the bottom 25 countries worldwide in terms of water and sanitation coverage. At the current rate of progress, Nigeria is predicted to meet the water MDG target in 27 years but may not meet the sanitation MDG target for 124 years.

“The Nigerian MDG national targets are 82% for water and 65% for sanitation. Estimates of the investment in water supply and sanitation required to meet these MDG based targets range from $2.5 billion (MDG Office) to $4 billion annually ($1.7 billion for water supply and $2.3 billion for sanitation—CSO2 costing). Out of the calculated $2.5 billion annual investment required to meet the MDG targets, only about $550 million is being injected by the Nigerian Government due to limited resources and competing needs, leaving a huge investment gap to achieve these targets.

“On the occasion of the 2013 World Water Day celebration on March 22, the Water and Sanitation Media Network urges the Nigerian Government to stop ‘talking the talk’ but  start ‘walking the talk’, because 33 million people are without toilets, over 868,000 Nigerian children die each year, about a quarter of which are from water-related and vaccine preventable diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, meningitis and measles; and, according to a UNDP report, Nigeria may not achieve the MDG water target before 2046 and that of sanitation by 2076.“

Climate change and violence against women, girls

Michael Simire
-
0
Climate change and violence against women, girls

The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day celebration, “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women,” signals the urgency to take concrete actions to monitor and address the drivers of violence against women and girls in Nigeria.

Apart from HIV/AIDS and social cultural norms that tend to permit violent behavior, the devastating impact of climate change is another key driver that may increase and even undermine efforts to end violence and impunity against women and girls in the country.

Last year alone, the combination of  violence unleashed by the dreaded Boko Haram Islamic sect  in the Northern part of the country, effects of the devastating floods and the various communal conflicts occasioned by competition for scare grazing land by nomards, has left many women and children on the receiving end of violence in Nigeria.

The sexual violence suffered by women and girls who were displaced as a result of the deadly floods which ravaged about 30 out of the 36 states of Nigeria last year was horrifying. It was reported that over 19 young girls were raped and many others molested in the camps where they took refuge from the floods that displaced them from their homes.

The circle of violence and the capacity of climate change to deepen the violence already faced by women and girls were highlighted in the case of a friend In Lagos who, after escaping from a violent relationship and a break-up with her husband, sought refuge in cultivating a rice farm. The impacts of the 2011 July 10 heavy rainfall and floods in Lagos that washed away her rice farm and destroyed her apartment ensured that she was rendered homeless without any means of livelihood.

The economic violence imposed by social and economic losses as a result of the floods have left many families without any means of livelihood, triggering another level of  violence  against women and girls.  Men tend to vent their frustrations and unleash violence on their wives and children when faced with economic hardship as their breadwinner status in the home is perceived to be threatened.

Women and girls living with disability face double jeopardy from climate change and violence. Most of them are already experiencing sexual violence which they cannot prevent by reason of their disability. On the other hand, climate change could be a cause of further disability to them, thus increasing their exposure to violence.

It is evident that we cannot win the battle against violence without responding adequately to the threat of climate change.  The intersection of climate change and violence has profound implications for women’s livelihoods and well being. Thus, to combat the threat of climate change and the violence that it may likely bring is an extremely important task which demands a comprehensive approach.

One important strategy which is needed first and foremost is to map the various drivers of violence against women and girls and review existing strategies to combat violence to take account of climate change. One of the many ways of doing this is to strengthen existing social protection mechanism by integrating climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and gender.

An extremely important intervention which can have far reaching impact in reducing the exposure of women and girls to violence triggered by climate change is the articulation of a framework that addresses loss and damages from the impacts of climate change. A systemic compensation initiative must be worked out to speedily compensate women and men immediately after a climate disaster to help them cope with the aftermath of climate disasters.

Local climate change financing should also take a gender and social inclusion approach to ensure that finance to address climate change takes account of women, children, people with disabilities and other vulnerable and marginalised groups who are often the victims of climate change and violence.

As we celebrate the International Women’s Day, let us remember that the time to take action to combat climate change and end violence against women and girls is now!  Together we can end violence against women and girls in Nigeria.

 

Titilope Akosa is the Executive Director, Centre for 21st Century Issues (C21st) Nigeria, while Titilola Kazeem is the Programme Officer, Climate Change and Environment, C21st Nigeria

Chemists seek national analytic laboratory

Michael Simire
-
0

Professional chemists, operating under the auspices of the Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria (IPAN), are calling for the establishment of a National Public Analytic Laboratory in the country.

The laboratory, they believe, will give Nigerians the opportunity to analyse materials, food and cosmetic samples in order to ensure there is improve standard and quality in what is offered to consumers.

Registrar of IPAN, Professor David Oluleye, stated this recently in Lagos during the investiture of fellows and induction of new members into the institute.

Professor Oluleye said IPAN was constituted to complement the role of the National Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) in ensuring standards in the country, and that Nigerians are meant to benefit from the synergy between the two bodies.

He charged the new members to abide by the rules governing the activities of member by ensuring standards are maintained at all times without cutting corners and involving in sharp practices.

According to Oluleye, IPAN is charged with improving the provision of healthcare and wholesomeness of consumer goods and services.

President of IPAN, Balogun Ganiyu Sanni, expressed displeasure with members for not setting up new laboratories. He urged them to turn a new leaf to adequately fulfil their roles as stated by the laws establishing the institute.

Sanni underlined the need for IPAN to upgrade and maintain global standards because, according to him, they are competing with analysts from other parts of the world. He also called for specialisation in analysis in the area of biological, chemical and device safety.

Registrar of Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Registration Board and also the guest lecturer at the occasion, Dr. Samuel Ntem, in a presentation noted that professional excellence is needed in every field of life “because it is vital in changing and impacting the society.”

He charged the new fellows and members of IPAN to maintain high standards in their dealings as they owe the society a responsibility.

A total of nine fellows and 21 members were inducted into the institute.

 

By Tina Armstrong-Ogbonna

Barriers to through traffic in Lagos

Michael Simire
-
0

Lagos. What a place! With a population of over 20 million people, the bustling city remains the centre of attraction to not only Nigerians but also to West Africans. It holds about 12 percent of country’s 167 million people.

Traffic congestion in Lagos

Despite its rather limited landmass, the city for several decades served as the administrative capital for the Federal and Lagos State governments. The ensuing institutional land uses such as government secretariats, educational institutions, airports and military barracks competed for space with the spiralling demands for new housing estates, a development informed by the steady flow of migrants into the city.

Under military fiat, governments acquired large tracts of land for such uses, which now seem to constitute major bottlenecks around the areas where they are located. This is attributable to the fact that, due to the city’s rapid growth, most of the acquisitions, previously in fringe areas, had become a contiguous part of the metropolis, surrounded by densely built-up areas. The city grew towards these places and practically wrapped around them.

A colleague in the urban planning profession, Prof. Leke Oduwaye, shares these sentiments, saying that the land area surrounding the institutional land uses are high density residential areas which generate high volume of human traffic as well as private and commercial vehicles during the morning and evening peak periods.

He lists some of the uses to include Federal Secretariat, The Cemetery, Police Barracks, Dodan Barracks, Golf Course (all in Ikoyi); Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos Island; University of Lagos, Akoka (UNILAG); Yaba College of Technology, Yaba (YABATECH); Federal School of Health Technology, Yaba; Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba; Army Barracks, Onike; Army Barracks, Yaba; Army Cantonment, Maryland; Police College, Ikeja; and Murtala Mohammed International and Local Airports (MMIA), Ikeja.

Others are: Army Resettlement Scheme, Oshodi; Lagos State University, Ojo; Navy Barracks, Ojo; Kirikiri Prison Complex, Kirikiri; Army Barracks, Ojo; International Trade Fair Complex, Ojo; Festival Town, Amuwo Odofin; Lagos State Government Secretariat, Alausa; Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja; Old Lagos State Secretariat, Ikeja; and Lagos High Court Complex, Ikeja.

Dr. Oduwaye, who is Dean of Faculty of Environmental Sciences at UNILAG, frowns at the man-hour loss, psychological stress and environmental pollution resulting from the persisting snarl along the Herbert Macaulay Road corridor within the Lagos Central Area, which he believes is due to the presence of a group of institutions like UNILAG, Queens College, YABATECH, Federal College of Education (Technical), Federal Technical College, Federal School of Health Technology, LUTH, Army Barracks (at Yaba-Abule Ijesha and Onike) and Atan Cemetery.

Some of the institutions are considered development and real estate un-friendly because they seem to tie down large, high-priced tracts of land, of which a substantial part could be converted to residential and commercial uses that are in high demand.

Perhaps this was the thinking when, several years ago, the Nigerian Army collaborated with a team of investors to build “The Arena,” a shopping complex located within the confines of the Maryland Cantonment, but with its main access from the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway by Oshodi. To some extent, the complex encouraged a Maryland-Oshodi through traffic, but recent insecurity challenges appear to have put that development to rest.

Similarly, the impression was that the new residential use that the old Federal Secretariat in Ikoyi would be put to could be a relief by enabling through traffic. However, the project has stalled following a face-off involving federal and state officials.

While the exorbitant toll charged by the airport management on the road linking the Lagos-Abeokuta Highway with the Isolo/Ire-Akari area has discouraged through traffic within the MMIA, the combination of LASUTH/Old Secretariat/High Court complex appear to be the cause of an extensive traffic congestion, which is routed through the Oba Akinjobi Road.

Observers are suggesting that such massive, non- thoroughfare tolerant land uses should either be pulled down, trimmed or opened up to allow for through streets in order to improve spatial interaction within Lagos.

Oduwaye wants ring roads to be constructed to collect traffic around the metropolis for those who have nothing to do within the central areas of the city, to connect areas where they intend to visit in the city.

“This is particularly required around the south-western end to link Apapa to Ojo, Igando, Abule-Egba, and Sango-Abeokuta Expressway. The construction of the Fourth Mainland Bridge at the Lekki-Ibeju end to link Ikorodu will serve as part of the Lagos Ring Road project,” he says.

A poser: do some of the military facilities still require so much land today, when war equipment and warfare now come in compact, computerised and remote-controlled packages?

 

By Michael Simire

Bello reiterates govt’s commitment to tackle climate change scourge

Michael Simire
-
0
Commissioner for the Environment in Lagos State, Tunji Bello, has restated the state’s commitment towards addressing the scourge of climate change, which he described as the defining environmental challenge of the world.
Bello

He noted this at the close of the three-day climate change summit hosted by the state government. The summit, the fifth in the series, had “Vulnerability and Adaptability of Climate Change in Nigeria: Lagos State Housing, Transportation and Infrastructural Sectors in Focus” as its theme.

The commissioner noted: “The previous summits have clearly shown that the state’s commitment to the development and evolvement of a climate change-conscious society so as to lay the foundations necessary to counteract the global threat.”
He said that the choice of the themes for the summits have been propelled by the policy thrust of the present administration in the state.
Bello expressed satisfaction at the successful hosting of the summit, saying that the different sessions and panels engendered productive interactive discussions which have contributed “in no small measure” to the building of national and international understanding of climate change and its impact on transportation, housing and infrastructural sectors of Lagos State.
He added that the discussions from the summit would assist the state government as well as world policy makers in making timely policy decisions in the fight against climate change, adding that the state would continue to improve on the hosting of the summit with fresh and strategic arrangement.
He charged all present, including members of the National Assembly and Lagos State House of Assembly, traditional rulers, senior civil servants from Federal, State, and Local Governments, political office holders, members of the academia, people from the private sector, national and international experts in climate change, NGOs and environmentalists to pass on the message and ensure that “our people in all sectors make use of the best practices”.
He also expressed appreciation to participants and resource persons, who endorsed the communique that emerged at the close of the event.

Nwajiuba: How to prepare for 2013 rains

Michael Simire
-
0
Nwajiuba: How to prepare for 2013 rains

The issue

As we approach the rainy season, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) has warned of possible heavy rainfall this year. Last year NIMET also warned, but this seemed not heeded. The cost in terms of human and materials losses were very severe, and we are still studying to understand the dimensions of the loses in  health, housing and infrastructure, human lives and livelihood, man hours in terms of work and schooling, and losses to Gross Domestic product, hence compromising human welfare, worsening poverty and health.

 

Flooded parts of Lokoja, Kogi State, in 2012

Recent experiences

In 2012, flooding occurred along the inland valleys around the Niger and Benue Rivers, down to the low lying planes of the Delta and coastal areas of Nigeria. Changes in rainfall regimes in the savanna regions of West Africa, including Nigeria’s neighbours posses challenges for the management of water resources, including dams on major West African waters. Human settlements, cities, and industrial/commercial properties and infrastructures, as well as agricultural production were impacted adversely. In the same year 2012 in Lagos, severe wind storms led to the  fall of telecommunication masts which caused the death of humans and the destruction of infrastructure.

In 2011, the Lagos extreme rainfall events, with precipitation per unit time beyond naturally geologically tolerable thresholds led to severe negative impacts on human settlement, infrastructure, and livelihood.. Ibadan in the same year 2011 experienced a similar extreme rainfall event, with more losses in human lives, though with less significant precipitation volume.

In 2010, extreme rainfall in the Sokoto and Maiduguri axes, accompanied by flash floods, resulted in losses in human lives and livelihood, as well as infrastructure, including the well publicized collapse of the intra- University of Sokoto Bridge.

The locations impacted by these events in 2010, 2011, and 2013,  recommend that Nigerians should prepare ahead, and take the warning by NIMET very seriously.

 

Prof. Nwajiuba

What science tells us

Studies under the Building Nigeria’s Response to Climate Change (BNRCC) project by NEST with support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), tells us that climate change is manifesting in changing rainfall patterns all over Nigeria among other parameters of climate change. These manifest as increased frequency of occurrence of extreme rainfall with heavy amount of precipitation occurring in a relatively short period of time. Reduced number of rainy days in the southern rainforest and coastal states but with little or no change in total annual precipitation portends risks all over the country. The National Adaptation strategy and Plan of Action on Climate Change for Nigeria (NASPA-CCN) developed under the BNRCC charts the pathway for the country, defining sectoral priorities and roles for various stakeholders including the Federal, State, and Local Governments, as well as non-state actors. As common in Nigeria, this deeply and elaborately developed guide is asking for serious and sincere attention from those who should.

 

What we should be doing now

All stakeholders, including governments at every level, and Non-state actors should commence awareness campaigns and keep citizens at alert.

Media houses should engage in creating awareness on the challenges of extreme rainfall events, and areas very much at risk.

Attitudinal changes in waste management are required of the citizens. This is especially to keep drains (where available) free from refuse.

Water channels need to be freed of all blockages. Dredging and de-silting of streams and rivulets are required now. Private sector operatives can support these as part of social corporate responsibility.

There should be demolishing of structures illegally constructed which blocked drains and access roads in case of emergencies. Building approving agencies should update and enforce regulations.

The lessons of the Lagos and Ibadan floods recommend that unless under immediate danger, citizens should remain where they are when floods commence rather than risking unsure and unsecured paths that expose them to flood and drowning.

The emergency management agencies such as the National Emergency management Agency (NEMA), and the state counterparts, the Red Cross and Red Crescent, the fire service, and security agencies need to be sensitised and equipped and be ready to go when requested.

Ministry of Health has to have ambulances, and emergency supplies and needs handy and ready.

 

Professor Chinedum Nwajiuba is the Executive Director, Nigerian Environmental Study Action Team (NEST), Ibadan, Oyo State

1...2,0102,0112,012...2,033Page 2,011 of 2,033

TV Report

Archives

2024 EnviroNews Nigeria. All Rights Reserved.

×