The Federal Government, through its Ministry of Environment, has commenced environmental education and advocacy campaign across the country in order to effectively reduce the menace of floods in Nigeria ahead of the predicted heavy rainfall in 2013.
The Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Mailafia, warned against complacency and directed that the tempo of activities relating to erosion, flood, environmental sanitation and awareness creation be stepped up to avert another round of flood related disasters.
She urged residents in flood prone areas, to implement without further delay, resolutions of various stakeholders’ meetings, as well as the recommendations of various committees set up after the 2012 floods.
Mailafia, in a document made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Friday, emphasised that educational jingles, which had already been produced in English, pidgin and three widely used Nigerian languages, be broadcast on national, regional and state television and radio stations to reach the broadest spectrum of the populace with appropriate messages.
The jingles were on the environmental issues of flooding, desertification, sanitation, erosion and land degradation, and would run for one quarter, to be followed by documentaries in the second quarter.
According to the minister, more proactive programmes to keep the nation on top of environmental challenges are to be unfolded in due course by the ministry.
The objective, she said, was to start and sustain a mass movement, which would harness and transform the nation’s environmental threats into positive assets and development opportunities for job and wealth creation.
Meanwhile, Mailafia has commended the German Federal Environment Agency for its offer of assistance to Nigeria in areas of waste management, pollution and desertification.
She observed that environmental challenges in the country were mainly in the areas of waste management, drought and desertification, erosion and flooding. According to her, Nigeria’s large population generated enormous solid and other wastes, which could be more efficiently and profitably managed and converted to wealth.
Mailafia said the acute desertification in the northern parts of the country posed huge threat to livelihoods, peaceful co-existence and security in the areas, as communities were forced to move to new locations, leading to conflicts.
She expressed hopes that Nigeria could partner with German investors in meaningful, pragmatic and concrete ways in solar energy and waste management.
“This would encourage state and local governments to embark on similar projects in their areas,” she said.