Groups urge FG to reactivate policies on water

Volunteer groups from civil society organisations have urged the Nigerian government to reactivate policies on water to curb pollution.

They jointly gave the urge in Abuja during a campaign to mark the World Water Day 2023. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Climate and Sustainable Development Network (CSDevNet) led a team from the African Activists for Climate on a clean – up of the Jabi Lake Park.

CSDevNet National Network Coordinator, Mr Abu Steve, called on government to use the opportunity of the World Water Day celebration to reinforce the policies on waterways.

Steve said that if Nigeria must conserve biodiversity and manage her water very well, the issue of plastic wastes must be taken seriously.

“Should in case these policies are lying dormant, it is time to reactivate them to make them guide us.

“It is time to sensitise the people on how to reuse, recycle some of these plastics instead of dumping them anyhow.

“We have life under water, that this source of pollution of plastic wastes are dangerous to,” he said.

Steve said the World Water Day 2023 is an important day and called on the government to take action on water related issues in the country.

“We call on these companies that produce plastic to enforce a law on how to take back the wastes from the society.

“We are also calling on the public to change their lifestyles of littering the environment with plastics and other wastes,” he said.

Mr Femi Olubiyo, a volunteer from CSDevNet said that their main objective at the Jabi Lake Park was to create awareness and sensitise the public on how to keep water clean to be healthy for humans and animals.

“In safeguarding our environment, everyone has a role to play, we can’t just leave it for the government alone.

“When we fail to take care of our water, it threatens sustainable development, biodiversity and peoples’ access to good water and sanitation,” Olubiyo warned.

Ms Bilkisu Aliyu, a volunteer decried the lack of waste bins around the Abuja metropolis and called on stakeholders in charge of waste collection to introduce them.

Aliyu urged the management of Jabi Lake Park to ensure that there are sanitation security officers within the lake, to checkmate the dumping of plastics and other wastes within the park.

Mr Paul Sambo, who is also a volunteer in the clean – up exercise decried the level of indiscriminate dumping of plastics in the water bodies.

NAN report that the World Water Day 2023 is celebrated with the theme: “Accelerating Change”.

NAN further reports that the World Water Day is held annually on March 22, since 1993.

The day celebrates water and raises awareness of the two billion people living without access to safe water.

The World Water Day is about accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis. (NAN)

FCT: AMAC Chair promises to reconstruct Tungan Madaki bridge

By Usman Shuaibu

The Executive Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Hon. Christopher Zakka Maikalangu, has promised the residents to reconstruct Tungan Madaki collapsed bridge in the community.

Maikalangu, who made this pledge when he visited the site of the collapsed bridge alongside some of his appointed politicians, saying that he would do everything possible to reconstruct the collapsed bridge.

He told the community leaders as well as the youths that some of his political aides accompanied him to the site of the collapsed bridge in order to ascertain the correct assessment of the work to be carrying out there.

He then assured the people of the community that the work would soon begin at the site, noting that the collapsed bridge would cut-off many people to have access to the community.

Maikalangu, who responded to the questions from the community leaders and residents in Tungan Madaki, expressed with dismay that due to the incident of the collapsed bridge the farmers could no longer transport their farm produce to the neighboring communities, as he said even the students from the FCT College of Education who resident in Tungan Madaki find it difficult to go to school.

Meanwhile, the community leaders and the entire residents of the community where delighted with the Chairman on the inspection tour to the site of the collapsed bridge.