RVHA Holds Environment Summit, Dec

The Rivers State House
of Assembly has fine-tuned plans to hold a National Environment Summit that is expected to produce a blueprint for the development of a bill that would regulate the health, safety and environment sector in Rivers State.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Environment, Hon Christian Ahiakwo, who disclosed this to Assembly Correspondents in Port Harcourt hinted that the mega summit which is being organised by the Rivers State House of Assembly in collaboration with the Rivers State Ministry of Environment and the Rivers State Waste Management Authority (RIWAMA) holds in Port Harcourt from December 6 to 7, 2016.
According to Ahiakwo, the event would create networking opportunities for big and small industry players in Nigeria and beyond as well as provide opportunities for delegates to cross-fertilize views with top policy makers, academics and industry players who are expected t o speak on the socio-economic impacts of the environmental devastation of Rivers State and eco-innovation and environmental sustainability in an oil and gas economy.
Other issues to be addressed at the summit include the tripartite role of the academia, industry and the state, the politics of oil and oil for politics and the application of environmental laws to the pollution of the Niger Delta, among others.
The event, he disclosed, would also provide an exhibition which would showcase the product, services and programmes of oil and gas companies, energy consultants, environmental organizations, tertiary institutions, insurance and risk takers, banks and financial institutions.
Already, a contingent of resource persons at the event to be chaired by a Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Prof Lawrence Ezemonye, which include Professors Okechukwu Ibeani, Josiah Ayotamuno, Henry Alapiki, Ibiba Paul-Worika as well as Ledum Mitee and renowned environmentalist Nimmo Bassey among others, would bring to the summit their formidable backgrounds on the issues at stake, spanning their years of involvement in them.

Victor Tew