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)