Floods drive thousands from wrecked homes along rain-swelled Congo River

 At least 50 people have been killed and thousands more left homeless in southwestern Congo, after heavy rain falls leading to floods and a river bursting its banks.


Kalamu River, which flows through the city of Boma into the Congo River, overflowed for two hours before the waters receded, washing some victims across the border into Angola.

The waters left parts of the city, Democratic Republic of Congo’s sole Atlantic port, covered in up to a metre of mud. Searchers are dig out bodies.

"The rains on the night of Monday to Tuesday in Boma have caused at least 50 deaths," said Jacques Mbadu, governor of Kongo Central province. "We buried 31 bodies on Wednesday and expect about 20 more bodies back today that ended up across the border in Angola."

Mbadu said the waters hit a peak of 2m above their usual level, wrecking at least 500 homes and leaving several thousand people homeless.

Boma, which lies near the mouth of the Congo River about 470km southwest of Kinshasa, is home to 150,000-200,000 people. "This is a cyclical phenomenon which (usually) happens every 10 years. It last happened in January 2015, but with climate change it’s now happened again in December 2016," Mbadu said.

Locals said two of the city’s three districts were still covered in mud up to a metre deep in places, and described tragic scenes with waters rushing into their houses.

"I lost my two children, carried off by the waters, which rose up to 3m like a tsunami. I could only watch them as they were washed away," said government worker Faustin Lutete.

Fisherman Jean-Marie Kola said he just had time to run far away when his house began shaking. "It collapsed later." Provincial governor Mbadu said the authorities were encouraging homeless people to seek shelter with relatives rather than reception centres.

He said he had been working with a Dutch company to reduce the risk of the Kalumu flooding.

Congolese towns and cities are typically built up in a haphazard fashion. Government services to deal with natural disasters are practically nonexistent.

Floods in Kinshasa in December 2015 left more than 30 people dead and 20,000 families homeless, most of them in the capital’s slums, where residents were left to battle with their bare hands through smelly mud, slime and faecal matter.

Despite its vast mineral wealth, Congo is classed among the world’s poorest countries. Two-thirds of its 70-million live on less than $1.25 a day.

Source: AFP

   

Shanghai water supply hit by 100-tonne wave of garbage: effects of environmental waste

 Shanghai water supply hit by 100-tonne wave of garbage: effects of environmental waste.

Medical waste, broken bottles and household trash are some of the items found in more than 100 tonnes of garbage salvaged near a drinking water reservoir in Shanghai.

The suspected culprits are two ships that have been dumping waste upstream in the Yangtze River. 

The river, then flowed downstream to the reservoir on Shanghai’s Chongming Island, which is also home to about 700,000 people.

The reservoir at the mouth of the river is one of the four main sources of drinking water for the country’s largest city.

China has struggled with air, soil and water pollution for years during its economic boom, with officials often protecting industry and silencing citizens that complain.

China’s cities are often blanketed in toxic smog, while earlier this year more than 80% of water wells used by farms, factories and rural households were found to be unsafe for drinking because of pollution.

Source: The Guardian

World's first solar panel road opens in France

World's first solar panel road opens in France

The world’s first solar panel road has been inaugurated in a Normandy village in France.

A One kilometre route in the small village of Tourouvre-au-Perche covered with 2,800 square metres of electricity-generating panels was inaugurated on Thursday.

According to the Ecology minister, Ségolène Royal, who commissioned the road, it cost more than four million pounds to construct.

Royal explained that the road will be used by about 2,000 motorists a day during a two-year test period to establish if it can generate enough energy to power street lighting in the village of 3,400 residents.

The Minister said that the panels were tested at four car parks across France, before the solar-powered road was opened on the RD5 road.

The road, which was named Wattway was constructed by Colas, part of giant telecoms group Bouygues, and financed by the state.

Colas said the panels have been covered with a resin containing fine sheets of silicon, making them tough enough to withstand all traffic, including heavy goods vehicles.

In 2014, a solar-powered cycle path opened in Krommenie in the Netherlands has generated 3,000kWh of energy, which is enough to power an average family home for a year.

However, critics have said that the solar-road is not a cost-effective use of public money.

Marc Jedliczka, who is the Vice-president of Network for Energetic Transition said, “It’s without doubt a technical advance, but in order to develop renewables there are other priorities than a gadget of which we are more certain that it’s very expensive than the fact it works.”

International Migrants Day: Effects of the environment on migrants

International Migrants Day:  Effects of the environment on migrants 

Every December 18^th is commemorated around the world as International Migrants Day. But the question that comes to mind every year is that who are the migrants? How is the environment affecting them where they are?

Now who is an “environmental migrant”? Is he/she a citizen of an island nation escaping rising seas at his/her doorstep; a drought-stricken farmer who cannot grow crops or raise livestock; or someone living  in a highly polluted metropolis forced to move to another country to cure persistent asthma attacks?

These are not anecdotal examples; rather they are realities that many environmental migrants face. The International Organization for Migration has predicted that by 2050, there could be as many as 200 million environmentally displaced people around the globe.

Recently, the 2006-2009 droughts in Syria, the worst the country has experienced in modern times and exacerbated by climate change, led to the migration of as many as 1.5 million people from rural to urban areas. This movement added to existing social stresses and may have contributed to the outbreak of violence and civil war in 2011.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP, an average of 26.4 million people per year, have been forced from their homes by natural disasters since 2008. This is the equivalent to one person displaced every second. And the trend is on the rise. Cumulatively, these factors present a tremendous challenge to the international community.

In May this year, at the World Humanitarian Summit, Tuvalu’s prime minister called for a UN resolution to create legal protection for people displaced by the impacts of climate change, including communities that might have to move because of rising seas, water shortages and other threats to their homes.

The low-lying island nation of Kiribati has raised the prospect of having to relocate its entire population to Fiji if sea levels continue to rise. The country even bought a symbolic plot of land in Fiji to highlight the choices that may face the Kiribati government.

The UN Environment, together with its other international partners, works to support vulnerable countries and communities around the world on issues of displacement and migration.

They encourage and enable ecosystem approaches to disaster risk reduction that help communities build ‘green defences’ to natural disasters. They also help countries anticipate and adapt to the impacts of climate change; and work with humanitarian agencies to reduce their own environmental footprint.

“When you look at the root causes of displacement environmental change or degradation is often a part of the story, so better environmental management should be part of the solution,” said Oli Brown, Senior Programme Coordinator, Disasters and Conflicts, UN Environment.

In the coming year, UN Environment will be joining the Global Migration Group, the main UN platform for interagency cooperation on migration and displacement, and will be well poised to contribute to discussions and negotiations on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in 2018

World's first zero-emission hydrogen train to begin operations in Germany

The world's first hydrogen powered, emission-free train will soon start operations in Germany in 2017. 

The initiative is a ground-breaking innovation that will help in phasing out heavily polluting, diesel-powered trains.

According to the German newspaper Die Welt, the first "hydrail", or hydrogen-powered train, will begin transporting passengers on the Buxtehude-Bremervörde-Bremerhaven-Cuxhaven line in Lower Saxony, in northern Germany, in December 2017. 

Although the first train in operation will only run a short, 60-mile (96-kilometer) route, four German states have signed an agreement with Alstom, the French company that builds the trains, for the purchase of up to 60 additional locomotives, if the train operation successful. 

The new, silent train, called the Coradia iLint, was unveiled by Alstom at a railway industry trade fair in Berlin earlier this year, and only emits steam and condensed water.

Although not suitable for electric railway lines, it's designed to provide a clean alternative to the large number of heavily polluting diesel trains that run on non-electric lines throughout Europe.

Germany alone has more than 4,000 diesel-powered train cars, according to Alstom, and about 20% of all of Europe's current rail traffic is hauled by diesel locomotives according to the European Union.

The train uses the same equipment as a diesel train but runs on an entirely new technology that uses hydrogen, which is a waste product of the chemical industry just as the fuel source.

Energy to power the train is generated by large fuel cells that sits on top of the train. This cell combines hydrogen with oxygen to produce electricity, which is then stored in batteries.

Each two-car train-set requires a fuel cell and a 207 pound (94kg) tank of hydrogen to supply it, while the oxygen is obtained from the local air. 

The train can complete a 500 mile (800 kilometer) journey on a full tank of hydrogen, which is enough for one day according to Alstom, and carries up to 300 passengers.

Although the 87 miles per hour (140 kilometers per hour) speed the train reaches is far below that of other European trains, it is well suited to the quieter and shorter stretches of the European rail network that haven't yet been converted to electricity.

Initial tests on the two pre-production trains that were unveiled at the trade show will be completed by the end of the year, according to Alstom.

The two units will then undergo further testing throughout 2017, prior to their expected approval for operation by Germany's Federal Railway Office at the end of that year.

Environmental Pollution

Environmental Pollution

Do you know that the present generation and incoming ones have three major challenges to tackle, if they have to survive in this world?

These challenges are population explosion, poverty, and pollution.

Pollution, being the most dangerous of them all, is a problem like cancer in which death is sure but slow.

Environmental pollution is assuming dangerous proportions all through the globe and Nigeria is not free from this poisonous disease.

It is the gift of modern living, industrialization and urbanization. Unless timely action is taken we have a forbid and bleak future for the world.

The technology does greatly affect our lives today. Information and Globalization Revolution brought changes not only to human but also to our nature.

These changes are inversely proportionate to the environment because as we demand for high technology we also brought unobserved effects to the nature.

Most times, governments’ attention is focused majorly on economic problems, forgetting about the environment. The Earth now experiences simultaneous typhoons, earthquakes and landslides.

The Environmental Protection agencies across the world should continue to rise up to the occasion, they need to raise more awareness on the ills of environmental challenges in the world today.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENT

What is the meaning “sustainable development” and its relationship with our ‘‘environment’’.

Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, but the most frequently quoted definition is from the International Institute for Sustainable Development:

It says "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’’

Also, the National Policy on Environment, “sustainable development” refers to the judicious and planned use of natural resources for equitable development to meet the needs of the present generation without jeopardizing that of future generations.

The Experts Group on Environmental Law, established by the World Commission on Environment and Development, prepare reports on legal principles for environmental protection and sustainable development, and proposals for accelerating the development of relevant international law, for consideration by the World Commission on Environment and Development.

And they give special attention to legal principles and rules which ought to be in place to support environmental protection and sustainable development within and among all states.

So when we talk about Environmental Issues, then matters on desert encroachment, flood disasters, oil spillage, water pollution, climate change, depletion of ozone layer and erosion that threaten human existence, come to our minds.

Other natural and man-made disasters too are parts of environmental issues that have claim millions of lives across the world.

These environmental issues can be monitored and addressed with the use of modern scientific and technological equipment like Space technologies, geographic information system (GIS) and GPRS to facilitate an effective Early Warning System.

Meanwhile, the application of end of pipe and green technologies to reduce industrially induced environmental pollution, have also been found effective in controlling pollution.

The adoption of appropriate strategies to manage both solid and e-wastes (recycling of the wastes and scrap metals in the society) are also means of developing our environment, For example, Lagos state government established organic fertilizer plants that use wastes within the metropolis.

The fertilizer also serves as agricultural input for farmers to boost productivity.

A good environment can only be sustained through the development of creative ideas which will help in improving the state of science and technology in the country with the ability to meet present and future needs of the people.

Monarch Launches Environmental Sanitation Programme In Ife

The Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, over the weekend launched an environmental sanitation programme ‎tagged ‘Gba’femo’, that is ‘Sweep Ife Clean’.

The sanitation programme, which worth millions of Naira includes a cleaning competition where residents will be encourage to get involved in cleaning the streets of Ife town.

According to the programme, the cleanest street in Ile-Ife and its environs when chosen would receive a cash reward of 100,000 Naira every month.

‎At the commissioning of the project held in front of the Ile-Oodua, Enuwa Square in Ile Ife, Osun State, Oba Ogunwusi, who was accompanied by his queen, Olori Wuraola Ogunwusi, said the provision of the two new Leyland trucks and waste disposal bins was to encourage the people of Ile-Ife to take the issue of sanitation very seriously.

He said that “environmental sanitation or cleanliness is crucial in the drive to make Ile-Ife a tourist destination. And Ile-Ife has to be prepared ahead for the millions of tourists expected to visit the ancient historical city from next year”.

About 200 youths have also been selected and enlisted for the take-off of the programme in collaboration with Local Government Authorities.

Oba Ogunwusi emphasised that environmental sanitation and cleanliness in all ramifications should be properly observed and carried out in all the nooks and crannies of Ile-Ife.

Earlier, the Project Manager, Mr Tunde Awoyemi, while addressing the crowd at the event said that Ooni Ogunwusi had challenged the youths, women and elders of the community to be actively involved in environmental sanitation and cleanliness of Ile-Ife and environs.

Also the Ife Traditional Council led by Obalufe of Iremo, Oba Idowu Adediwura and Lowa Adimula of Ife, Oba Julius Omisakin, spoke glowingly in support of the programme initiated by Ooni Ogunwusi.

They also appealed for support and co-operation of all and sundry in Ile-Ife and its environs to make the programme successful.

This initiative is coming days after flood destroyed property in the state’s capital city, Osogbo, leading to the death of one person.

The incident had been blamed on indiscriminate waste disposal by residents, something that the Ooni is trying to address in Ife town.

Dredging work has, however, started in Osogbo to guard against recurrence of the incident that occurred after flood warning was issued.

Channels Television. 

AFROSAI CALLS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS

The African Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions, AFROSAI, has called for the implementation of laws and regulations on environmental protection on the African continent.

The organisation also designed some programmes to aid the quick implementation of the environmental protection laws.

AFROSAI emphasised that the execution of the necessary environmental laws will bring down the economic hardships on African citizens and its resultant increase in societal ills.

This is following the successful completion of cooperative environment audit on the drying up of Lake Chad by the AFROSAI working group on environmental auditing meeting in Abuja.

Representatives of about 54 supreme audit institutions attended the meeting.

They looked at the possibilities for a proper environmental impact re-assessment that will ensure strict monitoring and control of activities in the basin and beyond.

They also focused on the role of both the citizens and government, especially towards ensuring implementation of multilateral agreements on environment arising from environmental audits.

The Acting Auditor-General of the Federation, Ms Florence Anyanwu, said that terrorism, poverty, unemployment and increasing economic discomfort are direct effects of the failure of governments so far to implement recommendations and environmental plans of action in the continent.

She maintained that the only way to progress is to ensure implementation of the recommendations.

Talks are already on-going for the cooperative environmental audit project on Niger by the Niger Basin Authority and the supreme audit institutions of the nine member countries.

Source: Channels Television

FRANCE URGES ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE AT UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

France has launched a threefold appeal at the United Nations General Assembly for the swift implementation of last December’s Paris accord on climate change, a major increase in aid for Africa, and an immediate ceasefire in Syria and the provision of humanitarian aid.

President François Hollande of France made the appeal while addressing the Seventy-first UN Assembly’s general debate on its opening day, calling on all countries to speedily conclude all steps before the end of the year.

On Africa, he proposed an “Agenda 2020” to give all Africans access to electricity, and warned that there will be no development there without security being guaranteed, noting France’s own intervention in 2013 that prevented terrorists from seizing control of Mali.

“Today the threat is posed mainly by Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, and organizations linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant,” he said.

President Hollande reiterated France’s support for countries of West Africa, the Sahel and the Lake Chad region.

“Faced with this scourge the countries of West Africa, the Sahel and the Lake Chad region know they can count on France. We are at their sides, we are training them, we are supporting them in all fields, including the crucial need for intelligence,” he added.

On Syria, Mr. Hollande said France would call on the UN Security Council to meet and advance four demands: impose a ceasefire, demand the immediate and unconditional provision of humanitarian aid to Aleppo and other besieged cities, allow for the resumption of political negotiations, and denounce and impose sanction on the regime’s recent use of chemical weapons.

Mr. Hollande said France also sought a meeting by the end of the year where Israel and then Palestinians will have both the capacity and responsibility to negotiate a solution to their conflict based on two states living side by side in peace and security.

Achieving universal access to water and sanitation by 2030 through blended finance – World Bank

Today, 2.4 billion people still live without access to improved sanitation; about one billion people defecate in the open; and more than 640,000 people lack improved drinking water sources.

With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals on water and sanitation (SDG 6), countries of the world committed themselves to change this situation by achieving universal access to safe water and sanitation while addressing issues of water quality and scarcity to balance the needs of households, agriculture, industry, energy, and the environment over the next 15 years.

A substantial increase in sector financing will be necessary to achieve SDG 6. Recent estimates by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) indicate that the present value of the additional investment in the water and sanitation sector alone needed through 2030 will exceed US$1.7 trillion. Existing funding falls far short of this amount; countries may have to increase their water and sanitation investments by up to four times in order to meet the SDGs.

The World Bank at World Water Week 2016

At present, most water sector actors in developing countries rely on government lending and concessional financing from national, bilateral or multilateral development banks (MDBs) to mobilize financing for capital investment. These financial sources alone will not be sufficient to finance investments on the scale that is called for by the SDGs. It is therefore essential to mobilize up-front financing from commercial sources as well.

National governments and donors must use their funds in a catalytic manner, as part of broader financing strategies that mobilize funding from sector efficiency gains, tariffs, domestic taxes, and transfers to crowd in domestic commercial finance. If they are able to do so, countries will be much more likely to access the resources they need to improve and expand the infrastructure needed to deliver and sustain universal coverage of water and sanitation services and achieve SDG 6.

However, commercial finance has been limited for the water sector up to now. How can it be mobilized? In a newly published paper - Achieving Universal Access to Water and Sanitation by 2030: The Role of Blended Finance, we suggest that “blended finance” can help lift the constraints that are limiting the mobilization of commercial financing for the water sector.

What is “blended finance”?

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) refers to blended finance as ‘the strategic use of development finance and philanthropic funds to mobilize private capital flows to emerging and frontier markets’. 

Blended finance in the water sector has the potential of mobilizing private sector financing for credit-worthy or close to credit-worthy investments. This would allow reallocating public funds to other areas where public subsidies are likely to be needed.

Commercial finance usually brings requirements for greater investment discipline and transparency, which in turn could support improved efficiency in the sector, an objective for most water sector reform efforts around the world.

Domestic commercial finance in particular can be mobilized in local currency, which reduces the foreign exchange risk and can bring down transaction costs, particularly for smaller scale investments to improve efficiency that can generate rapid returns (such as replacing meters or fixing leaks).

Blended finance has traditionally been used as a tool to stimulate interest from the commercial financial sector, with the use of concessional finance then tapering off over time to avoid distorting markets.

World Bank pulled together nine case studies on how blended finance has been used in facilitating access to water and sanitation in developing countries so far. 

These case studies include diverse experiences reflecting different levels of financial market development and targeting different sector needs -- from facilitating access to micro-finance for households to invest in water and sanitation in Cambodia or Bangladesh, all the way to setting up a revolving fund for utility investments in the Philippines.

The case studies shed light on how grants, concessional lending and various forms of credit enhancement (such as guarantees or revenue intercepts) have been used to address constraints on accessing finance so that more households would have access to drinking water, an adequate toilet and a suitable place to wash their hands by 2030.

Do you know of other examples where blended finance approaches have been successful in catalyzing investment in the water and sanitation sector? What about other sectors? Let us know in the comments! Or write to us at jkolker@worldbank.org and stremolet@worldbank.org. 

Source:World Bank

FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG IN NIGERIA

Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is in Nigeria on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa, using his time in the country to visit the Yaba technology hub in Lagos, meet with developers and partners and explore Nollywood.

Zuckerberg says he will also listen, learn and take ideas back to California on how Facebook can better support tech development and entrepreneurship across Africa.

One of his first stops on the trip was to visit a ‘Summer of Code Camp’ at the Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) in Yaba, known as the Silicon Valley of Nigeria.

At CcHub, Zuckerberg met with developers like Temi Giwa, who runs a platform called Life Bank that makes blood available when and where it is needed in Nigeria. Life Bank saves lives by mobilising blood donations, taking inventory of all blood available in Nigeria, and delivering blood in the right condition to where it is needed.

After visiting CcHub, Mark Zuckerberg said: “This is my first trip to sub-Saharan Africa. I’ll be meeting with developers and entrepreneurs, and learning about the start-up ecosystem in Nigeria. The energy here is amazing and I’m excited to learn as much as I can.

“The first place I got to visit was the Co-creation Hub Nigeria (CcHUB) in Yaba. I got to talk to kids at a summer coding camp and entrepreneurs who come to CcHub to build and launch their apps.  I’m looking forward to meeting more people in Nigeria”.

Mark also met developers At Andela, an engineering organisation, that is building the next generation of technical leaders in Africa.

Andela is a business that recruits the most talented technologists in Africa and shapes them into world-class developers through a four-year technical leadership program.

In the two years since it was founded, Andela has accepted just over 200 engineers from a pool of more than 40,000 applicants.

Andela developers spend six months mastering a technical stack and contributing to open source projects before being placed with global technology companies as full-time, distributed teammates, working out of Andela headquarters in Lagos and Nairobi.

Earlier this year, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative invested in Andela after being impressed by the company’s innovative model of learning and its drive to connect the global technology ecosystem with the most talented developers in Africa.

The Director of Andela Lagos, Seni Sulyman, said: “We are excited and honoured to welcome Mark Zuckerberg to Lagos. His visit reinforces not only his support of Andela’s mission, but his belief that indeed the next generation of great technology leaders will come out of Lagos, Nigeria and cities across Africa.

“Andela has created a platform for passionate, driven software developers and engineers to break into the global tech ecosystem, but the barriers to entry are still very high. Mark’s visit demonstrates to all Nigerian developers and entrepreneurs that they’ve caught the attention of the tech world, and they are capable of succeeding on a truly global level”.

At the end of the day Zuckerberg stopped by an Express WiFi stand in Lagos owned by Rosemary Njoku.

Facebook’s Express WiFi lets entrepreneurs like Rosemary set up a hot spot to help their community access apps and services built by local developers.

On plans to expound Express WiFi, Zuckerberg said: “This week, we’re launching a satellite into space to enable more entrepreneurs across Africa to sell Express Wi-Fi and more people to access reliable internet. That means more connectivity and more opportunity for entrepreneurs like Rosemary everywhere”.

Zuckerberg’s presence has become the talk of the day in Nigeria’s commercial city, with lots of ‘welcome to Nigeria’ messages on his Facebook page.

In response to some of the messages, an excited Mark said: “Thanks for such a warm welcome”!

(Culled from CHANNELS TELEVISION WEBSITE)

Lagos State Government reiterates commitment on environmental sanity in the state.

The Lagos State Government has reiterated its commitment in bringing back environmental sanity to every part of the state.

The commitment was made by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Tuesday while inaugurating the Special Committee on Clean-Up of Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Lekki areas of the state.

The governor said that gross abuse of urban planning and environmental laws in the state had necessitated the action to clean up the environment and restore it to its desired form.

“The neat road sides of the past now parade pockets of kiosks, illegal parking lots, unapproved mechanic workshops, roadside beer parlours and commercial centres’’.

Ambode explained that the state government will not allow the environment to be destroyed by people who had no regard for its beauty, serenity, law and order.

“A safe and prosperous Lagos is non-negotiable; that is the commitment of our administration. We will not allow these environmental infractions to continue,’’ the governor said.

According to the governor, bad environmental practices thriving in prime areas, such as Victoria Island, Ikoyi and the Lekki axis, can no longer be tolerated and will be brought to an end immediately.

He said that the clean-up was not a one-off exercise, adding that the one taking place in the high-brow area was the pilot scheme.

The governor charged the committee, chaired by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Tunji Bello, to immediately commence the implementation of the approved action plan and execution of the clean-up exercise.

He said the committee should develop strategies for preventing recurrence as well as other recommendations as necessary to sustain environmental renewal of the areas.

Bello, in his response, pledged that all members of the committee would carry out their tasks diligently.

Nigerian government urges Space Agency To Address Nation’s Challenges

Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, has urged the National Space Research and Development Agency to intensify research efforts that will address Nigeria’s peculiar challenges.

He made the appeal at the sixteenth Annual Space National Dialogue of the agency held in Abuja on Monday.

The Minister said that the agency should apply space science and technology in addressing Nigeria’s security and economic challenges.

He also appealed to the agency to make researches that would solve Nigeria’s peculiar challenges a priority.

The guest lecturer, Professor Ibidapo-Obe, said that space science could help solve security challenges, including rescuing the abducted Chibok school girls.

The Director General of the National Space Research and Development Agency, Professor Seidu Mohammed, said it was time to review how it has fared since its inception.

The Agency was established in 1999 to pursue the development and application of space science and technology for economic benefits. 

The National Space Center had in 2003 launched the first satellite, the Nigeria Sat-1 into space.
 Four years later, another satellite; the NigComSat-1 was also launched.

NAHIMAT ADEKOGA

Scientists set to launch 50 mini-satellites on atmosphere’s outermost layer

An International team of Scientists is getting ready to launch a set of 50 mini-satellites called CubeSats into Earth’s thermosphere, the outermost layer of our atmosphere that we know relatively little about.

The 50 mini-satellites will be launched from the International Space Station, and their job will be to feedback data on how our outer atmosphere functions.

The 50 CubeSats are part of an international project called QB-50, involving researchers from 28 countries, including Europe, Japan, the US, and Australia.

CubeSats are tiny satellites, measuring approximately 10 cm each side, and weighing around 1 kilogram each.

It’s an exciting move for Australia in particular, which is one of the Organizations for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD countries without a space agency.

One of the team from the University of New South Wales in Australia, Andrew Dempster said that the thermosphere is where much of the ultraviolet and X-ray radiation from the Sun collides with Earth, and generates auroras and potential hazards that can affect power grids and communications.

Another researchers, Elias Aboutanios said that the project is the most extensive exploration of the lower thermosphere ever, collecting measurements in the kind of detail never tried before.

Aboutanios explained that the satellites will operate for three to nine months, and may last up to a year, orbiting the little-studied region of space, before their orbits decay and they re-enter the atmosphere and burn up.

The researchers are excited about the potential data collected by the 50 satellites, and the best part is that the CubeSats are a lot cheaper to launch than large satellites, which means you get more data for your money.

The actual launch date is currently scheduled for December, and will be sent to the International Space Stationusing the Orbital ATK Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia. 

They will then take about a month to be deployed from the International Space Station, drifting down from  Station's 380 km orbit to the lower regions of the thermosphere.

NAHIMAT ADEKOGA

WASTE TO WEALTH

WASTE TO WEALTH

Do you know we can actually make money from waste and also save the environment from the filth and refuse in our communities?

Yes, we can save the environment by turning our waste into wealth.

Refuse waste has become a thing of concern to both government and inhabitants of areas filled with filth, as it may spread diseases and endanger the lives of residents.

But unfortunately, most of these waste are non-degradable, that is waste products and packaging materials which cannot be  decomposed chemically or biologically, and that is why environmental enthusiasts are clamoring for ways to recycle these waste and turn them into wealth.

Now we have a story of a young man, a 19 year-old man who invented a waste to wealth machine.

Emeka Nelson is a student of community secondary school Umuorbu Awka in Anambra, south East Nigeria. He proffers solutions to disposal of waste in his community, and creates wealth in the process.

His innovation “a waste to wealth machine” recycles non-biodegradable wastes like polythene, plastic etc. The machine converts these waste to refineable oil from which petrol kerosene and diesel can be gotten.

Emeka is one among several other students from across Nigeria who participated in the 2015 edition of the NTA ETV (Nigerian Television Authority-Educational TV programme) for Art, Science and Technology Exhibition, where other participants designed cars, vans and many other products from waste.

Brilliant young minds like Emeka Nelson is what our communities needs and should encouraged as the working principles of his machine leaves us only with useful bye-products from which interlocks for construction purposes can be made.

Emeka explains how his machine works in this video downloaded on the NTA website.

Meanwhile, government at all levels have appealed to individuals and communities to maintain cleanliness of their environment and save them the huge cost spent on illnesses.

NAHIMAT ADEKOGA