NES Challenges Govt On Environmental Protection Bill

The Nigerian Environ
mental Society (NES) has challenged the Rivers State government to put up bill that would protect the Rivers environment from the hazards emanating from the oil and gas activities operational in the state.
Speaking to newsmen in Port Harcourt, the National President, Nigerian Environmental Society, Olu Auder Wai-Ogosu, stated that the major challenge facing the state in the environmental sector was poor vegetation, forestry, ground water, air pollution among others adding that these effects have slowed down the pace of local artisan agriculture efforts in the state.
Wai-Ogosu, who noted however, that oil and gas activities have come to stay in the state stressed the need for modalities to check their excesses on the environment with the basic  modality being a bill in the state Assembly.
According to him, “each state or area has its own ecological terrain. In Rivers State, the major challenge in the environmental area has to do with the adverse effects of oil and gas activities on almost every aspect of the state’s environment including the land and of cause, vegetation and we need a bill to check it.”
He said these activities have produced chain of problems ranging from water pollution to bunkering, illegal refineries among others adding that those on the coastline have killed all the mangrove upon which some citizens of the state depend on for survival.
“Thus, the challenge is so much on the government and to begin with, it has to put up concrete and all-encompassing bill for the safety of its environment and residents,” Ogosu said.
While noting that the passage of the  Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would cut down on some of the effects, the NES President stated however that the PIB lacks a lot that it passed would not cater for the overall environmental  issues saying “it needs to be well-drafted to achieve its purpose”.
Wail-Ogosu further called on the industrial, construction, manufacturing and other companies operating in the state to devise proper waste management systems to reduce the hazards on the state and its environment.

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