Minister of
Environment Surv Suleiman Hassan
Minister of
Environment Surv Suleiman Hassan Zarma
Enhancing Environmental Health for Sustainable
Development
By Mahmud Abdulsalam
There are myriads of challenges bedeviling our environment. In
the Niger Delta, the problem of oil spillage has been a recurring
decimal. It is, perhaps the leading problem affecting Nigeria’s
natural environment.
The spills in most populated areas in the region often spread
out over a wide area, destroying crops and aquacultures through
contamination of the groundwater and soils. The consumption of
dissolved oxygen by bacteria feeding on the spilled hydrocarbons
also contributes to the death of fish. In agrarian communities,
often a year’s supply of food can be destroyed instantaneously.
Because of the careless nature of oil operations in the Delta, the
environment is growing increasingly uninhabitable.
People in the affected areas complain about health issues
including breathing problems and skin lesions; many have lost basic
human rights such as health, access to food, clean water, and
ability to work, to mention a few.
On one hand, desert encroachment has been a constant threat to
most parts of the North. Gully erosion and landslides have buried
several communities situated in valleys, and ‘murdered’ numerous
lives in Anambra, Imo, Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu.
As a matter of fact, the Nigerian environment has been adversely
impacted by human activities through releases to the environment
(polluting emissions, discharges, waste production etc.); changes
to (degradation of) land/habitat; and through the use and depletion
of resources.
It is therefore not surprising when the Minister of Environment,
Surveyor Suleiman Hassan Zarma disclosed recently that Conservation
of biodiversity and effective environmental management are critical
to attaining SDGs 13 and 15. According to him, effective
green-economy businesses that will conserve the natural resource
base as well as promote the livelihoods and socio-economic status
of local communities living within the some of the environments and
forest reserves should be promoted and implemented for
environmental sustainability.
Agricultural activities like soil tilling, grazing, and
fertilizer/pesticide application, burning of coal and natural gas
to generate power, use of refrigerants and coolants
(ozone-depleting substances), sewage and industrial discharges,
urban development (tree and vegetation removal), dredging, energy
production (exploration and drilling), creation of transport
infrastructure (like roads, highways, bridges), and
deforestation/logging, among others have continued to destroy the
ecosystem, its diverse habitats and exotic biodiversity.
They have resulted in the release of greenhouse gases (which
leads to global warming), depletion of ozone-layer, outbreak of
respiratory and other deadly ailments, acidification of lakes and
rivers, land and water, land water contamination, increased run-off
and erosion, depletion of fish population, decreased biodiversity,
flooding, increased exposure to ultra-violet radiation, landslides,
climate change, coral reefs’ damage, depletion of renewable and
non-renewable resources, desertification, and reduction of wildlife
habitat, to mention a few injurious impacts.
Similarly, inside Nigeria Environmental Issues news blog, Halidu
Mohammed Tasihu, an environmentalist, observed that, “the world may
indeed be a beautiful planet, but it is in ever constant danger of
destruction and despoliation by nature and man. It is a world in
which the greed of our present generation gives little thought to
the survival of future generations. This scenario has imposed
tremendous strains and stresses on the environment, especially in
the past two centuries and put our planet in perilous danger. Ours
indeed is a planet in peril. In Nigeria in particular, both nature
and man are at work endangering the environment even as we
presently lack the knowledge, technology, human capacity, financial
resources and the political will to remediate it.”
However, it is heartwarming to note that the Federal Ministry of
Environment is championing the crusade for remodifying the
environment for sustainable development.
At a recent briefing with departments and agencies of the
Ministry of Environment in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Mrs.
Ibukun Odusote, noted that environmental health is the bedrock of
sustainable development in any given society, saying, “one cannot
truly separate environmental issues from the economic
sustainability of the society, stressing that many environmental
factors can affect our health and productivity.”
Mrs. Odusote, who is the Permanent Secretary, stated that
environment is the most important detriment of sustainability in
any given society as it has the potential to directly and
indirectly impact on the wellbeing and health of the citizenry.
She lamented that despite the enormous importance of
environmental health to sustainability of the society, the
budgetary allocation has remained inadequate to address the various
environmental challenges confronting us as a people and as a
nation.
She noted that often times the Ministry’s budget is almost
always equated to erosion control alone which unfortunately is just
one single aspect of several factors that affect the environment,
adding that, “our country is facing myriads of climate change
issues and concerns that need serious budgetary provisions to
address the targets set by the United Nations on Climate
Change.”
As part of measures aimed at actualizing the Sustainable
Development Goal of ensuring a safe, unpolluted and hygienic
environment, there is need for the Ecological Fund to be supervised
by the Environment Ministry.
It would be recalled that, few months to her resignation last
year, Hajiya Amina Mohammed, former Minister of Environment,
opposed a bill proposed by the Attorney General of the Federation
and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, putting the management of
the Fund under the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation. She demanded that it should be placed under her
ministry.
The Fund, currently managed by the presidency, is an
intervention facility set aside to tackle the multifarious
ecological problems ravaging communities across the country.
Such problems include soil erosion, drought, desertification,
oil spillage, pollution, general environmental pollution, storm,
tornadoes, wildfire, large-scale livestock and epidemic, crop pest,
landslide and earthquakes, which are mainly the environmental
challenges the country is facing and normally should fall under the
purview of the environment ministry.
To mention, the concept of sustainable development and
conservation should be re-launched as an economic agenda,
especially at this critical juncture. It will help to save
Nigeria’s assorted habitats, and distinct biodiversity from
complete degradation and annihilation.
Furthermore, it is imperative that man re-asseses his
relationship with nature. A universal environmental education
program would go a long way to educate us about man’s complex
inter-relationship with his natural environmental. That is also
among the fundamental components of building a sustainable
future.
Mahmud Abdulsalam is a PRNigeria Staff Writer