Climate Change stakeholders on Monday, July 20, 2020 met to deliberate on ways to reduce environmental pollution and hazardous chemicals in the country.
At the meeting held in Kaduna, the Director, African Climate Reporters, Nurudden Bello, noted that industrial and manufacturing wastes were becoming increasingly very harmful to living organisms in the environment
He called for collective action to save humans, aquatic animals and the rest of living organism against threat of air and water pollutions caused by irrational human activities.
According to him, climate change is a global burden which needs to be addressed in order to save mankind from the increasing threats of high temperature, emerging diseases, and other ecological challenges.
Bello particularly noted that the amount of waste in Nigeria has been increasing at an astonishing rate, hence the need for both the federal and state governments to support recycling companies with innovative technology to combat the threat.
He also noted that desertification, deforestation, soil erosion and gully erosion were on the increase in northern Nigeria due to high demand for firewood, charcoal business and the extraction of rocks and stones for building construction.
“Many wild animals in most of the forests are forced into migrating to other regions for safety as a result of miners that are extracting gold and other natural resources in the region.”
He said that plastic pollution was another major environmental problem affecting most communities in the country due to lack of technology to transform it to other uses.
“Problems of waste management in Nigeria need to be attended to in order to create favorable and safe living conditions for the citizens of the country,” he said.
He called for robust campaign by NGOs, on the dangers of air pollution, especially in communities close to industrial areas in order to save them from hazardous chemicals.
Also, Public Relation Officer of Climate Action Group, Kaduna branch, Ismail Sani, expressed happiness over the meeting.
He said it would strengthen efforts towards educating, enlightening and informing the public on issues related to the environment, including the need for massive tree planting.
By Hassana Yakubu
