Climate Change May Submerge Lagos – Commissioner

As the climate change phenomenon assumes increasing topicality in global affairs, the Lagos State commissioner for The Environment, Dr. Muiz Banire has expressed fears that a very little rise in the sea level was capable of submerging Lagos.

Banire who spoke as guest at a two-day summit on climate change, organised by the Apapa Local Government Area, stated that due to the increasing damage to the ozone layer, any two metre rise above the current sea level would spell doom for the state.

“We are the most vulnerable despite the fact that we are the least contributors to global warming. Nigeria is even the most fragile,” he said., adding that “if we could have a two metre rise in the sea level, then it is bye bye to Lagos State.”

According to the commissioner , the resultant effect of climate change is now evident in the unpredictability of weather conditions.

He said that while the Northern part of Nigeria was the food basket of the nation in the past, the arable land had been lost to desertification of recent.

“In Epe, two years ago, we warned them not to fell trees, but they kept felling and selling them. When the wind came, it could not be stopped and by the time it stopped, 200 houses had their roofs blown off,” he said.

He advised Nigerians to help conserve energy and regulate the use of machines and other materials which transmit carbon into the air.

In a bid to curb the effect of global warming on the state, Banire said the state government had continued to emphasise the need to plant trees.

While maintaining that this action is part of the solution, the commissioner stated that over one million trees had been planted by the state government.

He also emphasised the use of inverters in place of generators and tasked Lagosians to stop throwing refuse into drainages and water channels.