The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has attributed environmental challenges to human activities and tasked stakeholders with finding a lasting solution to the menace.
The Director of the AEPB, Engr. Osilama Braimah, disclosed this while commemorating the 2022 World Environment Day.
Commenting on the theme of this year’s World Environment Day, “Only One Earth,” Engr. Braimah said it is a wake-up call, which presents everyone with the opportunity to quickly realize that a healthy planet is crucial for collective prosperity.
The Director also agreed with the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, who had warned that global well-being is in jeopardy, largely because societies have not kept their promise as regards the environment.
“Climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, pollution and waste all around us, are indices to show that our beloved planet earth is on code red and it is growing more ominous every day,” he said.
The event has been marked globally on June 5, annually since 1972, when Sweden, hosted the first-ever United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.
The AEPB Director spoke on measures taken by the board to tackle the pollution and waste challenges:
“Regarding waste management in the FCT, our focus had always been waste reduction, and to that end, we are putting in place, waste transfer stations in Apo-Gudu, Mpape, and Kubwa in the FCT.
“This is the time to shift to a circular and regenerative economy,” he stated.
Highlighting a variety of symbolic activities for the commemoration, the Director, disclosed that clean-up exercises had been organized in communities and internally displaced peoples’ camps within the territory to sensitize people on the need to embrace living in a clean and decent manner.
“Debates have also been organized for school children to catch them young so that they become advocates for a clean and healthy environment at a tender age.
“The clean-up of Jabi lake is another symbolic exercise and many more interesting activities have been planned for Monday, June 6 at the AEPB Headquarters.
“The whole essence is to create awareness about a world in which people live in harmony with nature and to let people know that tackling earth’s interlinked environmental and social issues requires holistic and pragmatic solutions since piecemeal actions have not helped to prevent problems that affect our general wellbeing,” he noted.
Edited by Amaka E. Nliam
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