From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Aba, Abia State, joined the rest of the world on Saturday, April 22, to commemorate this year’s Earth Day. They held a citywide awareness rally on friendly lifestyle.
The annual event is aimed at raising awareness on the importance of protecting the earth and its natural resources.
A students advocacy group, Youth and Students Advocates for Development (YSAD), alongside its partners; Onyedinma Foundation (OnyeFund), Vivacious Development Initiative (VIDI), Initiative for Rural Revival and Enlightenment, (IRRE), and Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development (FENRAD), during the campaign, encouraged Aba residents to engage in conserving the environment.
They also urged the incoming administration of Dr. Alex Otti, to include environmental sanitation, in its priority policy agenda, to protect the citizenry from diseases that easily come with dirty environment.
Chief Executive Officer of YSAD, Obinna Nwagbara, said the theme of this year’s event: “Invest in our planet,” was critical, and self-explanatory, but must be given adaptive definition as a call on all humans, to follow the path of mitigative environmental actions capable of sustaining their existence, and that of other species on earth.
Nwagbara said the task before the group “was to remind our people in Aba and Nigeria, generally, that the need to pursue eco-friendly ideals, restore their environment, improve their throwaway culture and reduce carbon emissions is paramount.
“These actions, are better ways of investing in our planet, to us. Climate change adaptation which forms Goal 13 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has become a discussion agenda, among states and citizens today.”
“It is equally an issue that should engender bold conversations amongst all stakeholders, state actors and non state actors alike.”
According to him, recent research finding showed that by the year 2030, 700 million persons, would have become ‘an at-risk population’ facing displacement, occasioned by drought alone.
He named famine, rise in sea level, warming, flood, erosion, hunger, diseases and other environmental challenges as not letting up, even as voluntary intervention, which remains the key initiative of sensitizing people on this, becomes harder with governments and their agencies alone being unable to enforce actions.
Continuing, Nwagbara said: “With poor refuse disposal, Aba gutters are clogged up, resulting in thickened sludge breeding mosquitoes, and other vectors.
“One of the environmental challenges facing Aba today, is plastic pollution. From sachets to straws, can to the water bottle, and the rest, plastic wastes are indiscriminately littered in Aba, including in its major town and landmarks, where such wastes form a mountain range.
“Since Abia, as a state, has no formidable recycling culture, these wastes constitute health hazards to the public. Too, they are non biodegradable and pollution agents and therefore through long years of decomposition mar the environment. “
YSAD and its partners enjoined Aba residents to take action and act responsibly towards protecting their environment: “We urge all Abians and Nigerians, generally, to adopt a positive environmental attitude, put an end to open defecation, indiscriminate dumping of refuse, illegal channelling of effluent and all actions capable of depleting man’s habitat.”