A former Commissioner, in Rivers State Ministry of Environment, Prof. Roseline Konya, has said that rural dwellers are the first to suffer from threats of ecosystems either by pollution, climate change or over-exploitation.
Professor Konya stated this at an environment event in Port Harcourt recently.
She noted with dismay the high level of degradation of the environment and described the situation as unacceptable.
The Commissioner said, “billions of rural people around the world spend every working day connected to nature and appreciate fully well their dependence on natural water supplies.
“They are among the first to suffer when ecosystems are threatened whether by pollution, climate change or over-exploitation”.
While noting that nature’s gifts were hard to value in monetary terms, Konya said, “like clean air, they are often take for granted at least until they become scarce,” maintaining that such levity had resulted to the environment’s degradation at the detriment of the rural people.
She revealed that economists, as parts of their contributions, are developing ways to measure the multi-trillion-dollar worth of many so-called ecosystems services, adding that the ministry was reviewing and updating its extant laws for the enforcement and achievement of best environment practices including green economic policies.

Lady Godknows Ogbulu