Environment
SWA, UNICEF Task World Leaders On Sanitation, Water Facilities
Sanitation and Water for All partnership (SWA) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have urged world leaders to invest in water and sanitation facilities to avoid the risk of another pandemic.
The Chief Executive Officer, SWA, Ms Catarina de Albuquerque, said this in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos.
NAN reports that SWA links up governments, donors, civil society and multilateral organisations to work together and take action to tackle the sanitation and water crisis.
Albuquerque called on world leaders to learn from the mistakes of the COVID-19 pandemic and invest in sanitation facilities.
“Leaders and decision-makers have a choice. Our mistakes during COVID-19 have demonstrated the immense cost of inaction, but we have the wisdom to learn from them.
“We can invest heavily in pandemic prevention and mitigation, including ensuring that communities everywhere have access to clean water, and reliable hygiene and sanitation services.
“Or we can ignore the catastrophic lessons learned, placing the world at grave risk for future public health threats.
“We do not have to wait for the next pandemic to take action. There are other global health crises happening right now, responsible for the deaths of millions that can be solved by prioritising the provision of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services.
“From cholera to coronavirus, the message for government leaders is clear: ‘if we want to get ahead of the next pandemic, we must urgently invest in water, sanitation, and hygiene.’
“To make any other choice could have devastating consequences,” Albuquerque said.
She said that the COVID-19 pandemic, the deadliest viral outbreak, in the world over a century might not be the last in our lifetime.
Albuquerque said that the question of another global health crisis was “not if, but when.”
She said that in spite of the imminent threat, the 2021 Global Health Security Index, estimated that 195 countries remained dangerously unprepared for future pandemics.
“Additionally, only 33 countries have emergency preparedness and response plans in place that include considerations for vulnerable populations.
“Our collective failure to invest in preventative measures means that when diseases appear they can rage out of control, destroying lives and triggering massive health crises that take decades to resolve.
“We can either allow this information to scare us or we can use it to prepare us.
“One urgent policy solution for preventing disease is universal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene,” she said.
Albuquerque said that access to clean water was also vital to disease prevention beyond COVID-19.
She added that nearly 1.8 billion people use contaminated drinking water, putting them at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, polio, and typhoid fever.
Albuquerque said that inadequate management of waste was one of the attributing factors of Ebola transmission in West Africa that resulted in the deaths of thousands of people.
She also stated that the World Health Organisation had recommended water and sanitation improvements as a vital first line of defence.
“Our sanitation services are not just vital to stopping the spread of disease but also to understanding its impact,” she said.
Albuquerque in the statement announced SWA collaboration with UNICEF to host a meeting on how to stop infectious diseases through investment in water, sanitation, and hygiene, as well as through vigorous action on climate change.
She said that the meeting slated for May 18 and 19 in Jakarta, Indonesia, would bring together world ministers of finance and ministers of water, sanitation, health, and climate.
Some stakeholders in Okoroagu community in the Etche Local Government Area of Rivers state have blamed the perennial erosion in the community on the poor conditions of their road.
They are therefore calling for the rehabilitation of their road.
They said this in an interview with The Tide, at okoroagu.Speaking to The Tide,the Ochimba of Okoroagu community, Eze Marcus Amadi said the poor conditions of their road has retarded the growth and development of the community.
According to Eze Amadi,”The government has neglected us, they have forgotten about us, we have been writing letters to the government, both to the NDDC to come and repair our road for us, we are on our knees pleading to them to come help us out, at least they should just dredge the road for us”
Continuing he said”If the government comes today to repair our road, nobody will say they shouldn’t.
“Nobody will obstruct them. We have been shouting and crying that our road is not good, the road is affecting the community economically and socially in the sense that, there is no way we can carry our crops out because of erosion.
“Erosion have taken over the road, making it difficult for us to access other communities especially during rainfall you see people falling down and getting injured inside the river which we call Mmiri Ehe in our language, which reaches our waist line during raining season. Our people can not go to other market to sell their products due to the bad road”he saidAlso speaking,Chairman Community Development Committee( CDC )Okoroagu , Hon. Elvis Nwaobasi decried the situation of the road, stressing that economic activities are being affected as movement of goods and services have gradually slowed down in the area.
” The road have affected our women so badly, they are no longer going to the other neighboring markets to sell their Agric produce because of the nature of the road.
“This road has also affected us in many ways, it has affected our educational system, security system, it has also affected our health system, because with the nature of that road, people cannot access our health facilities in the community, with the nature of that road, people cannot access our school, with nature of the road, people cannot come in and do business in our community, we cannot access the road because of the neglect of the road.
“People are using our road for excuses to come in and invest and do businesses. People who come to our market to buy our products are no longer coming because of the nature of the road.” I am pleading with the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayig Fubara to please come to the aid of Okoroagu and repair our road. I am pleading with the Rivers State House of Assembly, we are suffering too much because of this road. We have been neglected and abandoned for years, the government should please come to our aid” he said.Also the women leader of Okoroagu community, Mrs. Anthonia Nweke blamed some politicians from the area for abandoning the people of Okoroagu
“Our road has been abandoned, overlooked, with no attention, mostly the higher politicians of the place, we have been abandoned for years”
In furtherance to the commitment of the Federal Government through the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation (HYPREP) to the full implementation of the recommendations of the UN Environment Programme Report on Ogoni Environment, the Project has commenced processes to designating Ogoni Wetland as a Ramsar Site.
Labaran Ahmed, National Focal Point for Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance and Assistant Director in the Federal Ministry of Environment, who is leading the process for collection of field samples, said the move will converse biodiversity, enhance livelihood, attract ecotourism and further earn global recognition for Ogoni Wetlands.The UNEP Report envisages that this would provide the Government with a roadmap for restoration and sustainable management of the Ogoni wetland, bring the site unto international among others.Project Coordinator, Professor Nenibarini Zabbey, represented by Director Technical Services, Professor Damien-Paul Aguiyi said the project further attests to the Federal government’s commitment through HYPREP to implementing the UNEP Report simultaneously.Nigeria is a signatory to the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction(BBNJ) Agreement for how research on marine genetic resources must be conducted and documented, ensuring transparency and the equitable distribution of benefits.
Environment
Tribunal Acknowledges losses in Rare species Across the globe …urges for government Action
It was noted that the choice by the Brazilian government to host COP30 serves as a symbol of the importance of the Amazon. They denounced the current and future impacts of the expansion of the extractivist frontier, deforestation, fossil fuels and large-scale mining. It was urged that the Amazon, with its ecosystems, animal, plant species, and rich biodiversity, natural medicines and its vital and reproductive cycles, should be considered as a subject of rights together with the Indigenous Peoples, and other communities that inhabit it.
The co-president and judge of the tribunal, Nnimmo Bassey, while delivering the verdict, noted that the defence of the rights of Nature is the right way to carry out real climate action and that there is no climate justice without the rights of Nature.
The tribunal stressed the need to phase out fossil fuels and quickly move to renewable energy as a way that protects both communities and ecosystems from false solutions that merely benefit financial speculators and compound climate injustices. The Tribunal also urged the United Nations to adopt the pledge as a blueprint for international environmental law.
A copy of the declaration obtained by The Tide revealed that,Judges at the Tribunal included Ana Alfinito of Brazil, Nnimmo Bassey ( Nigeria), Enrique Viale (Argentina), Shannon Biggs (USA), Casey Camp Horinek (Ponca Nation, USA), Tom Goldtooth (USA), Princes Esmeralda (Belgium), Cormac Cullinan (South Africa), Patricia Gualings (Ecuador), Francesco Martone (Italy) Tzeporah Berman (USA), Ashish Katharine (India), Osprey Orielle Lake (USA), Pooven Moodley (South Africa) and Felicio Pontes (Brazil)
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