COVID 19: Current lockdown healing environment from pollution – Environmentalist

COVID 19: Current lockdown healing environment from pollution – Environmentalist

Environment

By Ezra Musa

Kaduna, April. 18, 2020 (NAN) An environmentalist, Mohammed Zakariya, says the current lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic is healing the environment from air pollution and effects of climate change.

Zakariya, who is the Director, Climate African Reporter, made this known on Saturday while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Kaduna, said the lockdown had equally caused a serious decline in issues related to climate change.

He said that the lockdown had also led to a massive drop in unhealthy environments due to reduced human irrational activities.

” Worldwide more and more factories and companies are shutting day-by-day, and with mandates for people to stay at home, which has become the new norm, people are not driving or flying.

According to him, there is a serious reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere due to the lockdown by federal and state governments.

“Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) emissions, a major air pollutant are closely linked to factory output and vehicles operating on the road and it is really very harmful to both humans and the environment.

He said that most of the street were now empty as most of the companies  polluting the atmosphere were not working.

”Worldwide, countries and cities are in lockdown, borders are closing, companies are struggling to stay in business and families are struggling to stay afloat, while corona is affecting more victims.”

Mohammed said most abattoirs that usually pollute the environment by roasting animals with expired tyres had reduced their activities.

“You can also see that the lockdown has crippled the activities of tanker-drivers, commercial vehicles which include taxi, tricycle and Okada riders and these have reduced bad air in circulation.”

Zakariya noted that the World Health Organisation estimated that 4.6 million people die each year from causes directly attributable to air pollution.

“Many of these deaths are attributable to indoor air pollution worldwide as more deaths per year are linked to air pollution than to automobile accidents.”

He said that environmental risk factors such as air, water and soil pollution, chemical exposures, climate change, and ultraviolet radiation  had contributed to more than 100 diseases and injuries across the world.

He called for the use of clean technologies and fuels for domestic cooking, heating and lighting to reduce acute respiratory infections, chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases and burns.

The director advised local bakeries and abattoirs to embrace new technology to reduce the use of firewood to save the environment from deforestation.

He also called on citizens to always obey social distancing and stay at home to avert the spread of the pandemic. (NAN)
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Edited by Grace Yussuf