Douglas Blessing, Port Harcourt
A group, Lekeh Development Foundation (LDF) has decried the disastrous impact of climate change on the Niger Delta environment and other parts of the country.
In his remarks, at a two-day Niger Delta Climate Change Conference, organised by the group, with the theme: “Niger Delta and Climate Change: Imperatives for Action”, Executive Director of LDF, Nbani Friday Barilule, noted that climate change has caused great damage to communities in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
Barilule listed some of the impact of climate change in the region to include; disappearence of wildlife, destruction of aquatic life, degraded farmlands, amongst others.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) Rev Nnimmo Bassey has stated that the best way to encourage a cleaner environment is for the government to invest in renewable energy.
Bassey who was one the facilitator at the programme, stressed that what is happening in Niger Delta is ecocide, therefore call for the restoration of the environment.
He also noted that the negative approach to the environment has caused more damage that development in the recent times.
Speaking on the government ignorance in tackling effects of flooding in the region, Bassey said: “People are not secured in the flood. Security is not only putting policemen to carry guns, to set road blocks on the highways, giving the people a liveable environment is a right of the people, is a right in the Nigerian constitution, is a right in Africa Charter for Human and Peoples Right.
“If government cannot go beyond warning people that flood is coming, to provide alternative, to provide security, safety measures, to provide relief materials, to compensate those who been impacted over the years, then is a failure on the part of the government.
“The last flooding killed 603 Nigerians by official count, one million people were displaced. That to me is a tragedy that requires action but uptill now we have not seen any action”.
Also speaking on flooding, a human rights defender, Celestine Akpobari, said “By now, a government that care about the people should have known that they will build a very big IDP camp where people will go to when the flood comes”.
According to Akpobari, the issue of flood should be given more attention even than oil spill, adding that the government should be encouraged on how to manage the situation during flooding season.
Because you will not stop the people farming and looking for their livelihood, the best thing a government that care about the people should do is to begin to alter the pattern of farming in this area. If they were farming yam and cassava that will take from January to October for harvest, you chanel their energy into commercial cash crops (those crops that can stay three months). Remove their heads from how we used to farm before we were embarrass by flood.
Government should take the issue of flood very seriously, even much more that oil spill, because oil can spill you still see the land, the can clean it and use the land again but this flooding is actually eating it up completely and you won’t get it back completely”.
