By Chuks Oyema-Aziken
The federal government has added government schools, motor parks, train stations and places with a high prevalence of people as places to be decontaminated to curtail spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
Recall that the federal government had earlier stated plans to disinfect and decontaminate airports and aircraft ahead of the planned flight resumption in some airports.
Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, the Minister of Environment, disclosed this while briefing newsmen on activities to kick start the 2020 World Environment Day (WED) on Thursday in Abuja.
The theme of 2020 WED is Celebrate Biodiversity.
Mahmoud said aviation stakeholders had met with the ministry officials and agreed on suitable chemicals to use for the disinfection that won’t affect the aircraft.
“We have started decontamination in all the six geopolitical zones and we are now waiting for additional response from the government to accelerate decontamination of schools,” he said.
“We have just concluded arrangement with the management of airport and owners of airlines to disinfect all the airports because aviation is key and must be handled for safety purpose,” he said.
He, however, said that COVID-19 had been a blessing in disguise to all nations in the area of reduction emission from vehicles, airlines among others.
He said that because of lockdown, which affected many countries in the world due to COVID-19, emission in the atmosphere had drastically reduced, which had been very hard to curtail for years.
“The Paris agreement signed by most countries in the world is to cut down emission, but COVID-19 has helped to achieve that.
He said that over one million plant and animal species risk extinction largely due to human activities, which calls for action to combat the accelerating species loss and degradation of nature.
“The theme is indeed very appropriate, considering the fact that researchers and scientist have established COVID-19 to be zoonotic.
“In order to fully address and prevent future pandemics therefore, we must restore, conserve and protect biodiversity as key antidotes to COVID-19 recovery
“While we continue to battle with the crisis as environmentalists, we must continue to contribute our quota in the collective efforts being made to contain the spread of the pandemic.
“For this reason, the UN deems it fit to address biodiversity with the theme, ‘Time for Nature’, with a focus on its role in providing the essential infrastructure that supports life on earth and human development.
