In a bid to rid the environment of all forms of pollution arising from oil exploration and exploitation in Rivers State, the state government has proposed a new law stipulating stiff penalty, for companies and imprisonment for individuals who pollute the environment.
Disclosing this in an exclusive interview with The Tide , Sunday night in Abuja, Rivers State Commissioner for Environment, Bar Kingsley Chinda said the law to be known as the Rivers State Environmental Law is designed to ensure a healthy environment throughout the length and breath of the state as it would checkmate the excess of oil companies and is a step ahead of federal law on environment.
Barr Chinda who was in Abuja to attend Supreme Court sitting last Monday in the case between the state Governor, Rt Hon Chibuike Amaechi and Labour Party gubernatorial candidate in the April 14, 2007 gubernatorial election in the state, Chief Soberekon said the state government is determined to rid the state of pollution of all kinds and would not go back from its resolve.
We have proposed an environmental bill, tagged Rivers State Environmental Law that has gone s step further than federal law on environment.
“It ensures that the polluter clears pollution within a space of one month, where the (polluter) fails, it (bill) carries penalty not just financial but imprisonment”.
Hon Chinda said the ministry of Environment has been able to commence a quick response process to calls from polluted areas of the state, right from Ogoniland to Abua axis in the last two years of the Amaechi administration but regretted that government has so far not been given maximum co-operation from the multinational companies operating in the state.
‘We have not recorded maximum cooperation from the facility owners and most often they hinge their complaints on security, that the security situation in their host communities has made it difficult for them to clear such pollutions from the affected communities.
Chinda told our Abuja correspondent that the government is determined to beautify the environment as it targets the planting of five million trees in the state, with the co-operation of citizens.
The tree planting campaign recently launched in the state, he said, was meant to achieve this, stressing that if we all adopt one tree, “you will find that we planted about five million trees in Rivers State. It will check flooding and erosion and clears the air”.
Bar Chinda said in a quest to achieve a new healthy and beautiful environment, the government has begone a re-branding campaign of its citizens with the launching of RIVGREEN Initiative which covers special aspects and facets of the ministry’s operations, mobilization and enlightenment.
He said it is in line with this that the RIVGREE clubs and school societies were launched, noting that about 28 secondary schools all tertiary schools in the state, except College of Arts and Science (CAS) and Colleges of Education have RIVGREEN clubs, where the members are taughts on environmental issues on the 3Rs in waste management.
The 3Rs are Waste Reduction, waste Re-Use and Waste Recycling.
Also taught, Barr Chinda said, are global issues and carbon sequestration which is the process of cleaning the environment for example by planting more trees.