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Environment

FCT Emergency Agency Department solely responsible for IDPs in FCT — AEPB

IDPs
By Tosin Kolade
Abuja, June 21, 2018 (NAN) The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) says it is the sole responsibility of the FCT Emergency Agency Department to assuage the plight of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the FCT.

 

Mr Simeon Ajueyitsi, the Head of Department of Environmental Health and Safety, AEPB, told News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday that the board was, however, worried about continuous practice of open defecation at IDPs camps in the FCT.

 

According to him, the sanitary conditions of the IDPs camps in the FCT were horrible, as the environment is tainted by poor sanitation and open defecation.

 

“Without deceiving ourselves, the FCT Emergency Management Agency is the sole body responsible for plight of the IDPs in the camps. However, due to the fact that there is no Act of Parliament supporting it, it is now a department but they are the ones in charge.

 

“I can recall when I represented the AEPB in Kaduna when we were formulating the policy on FCT management, they know what they are supposed to do.

 

“In fact, the FCT Emergency Agency Department is solely in charge of the management of IDPs camps; we can only collaborate with them.

 

“All agencies can only collaborate with the FCT Emergency Agency Department, the agency is the one in charge, and it should provide toilets, water and other facilities in the IDPs camps.

 

“They can only co-opt us to join them, the funding, should come from the FCT Minister’s Office; the FCT Emergency Agency Department is just like the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to the FCT,’’ he added.

 

Ajueyitsi said that unsanitary environment could spur the outbreak of water-borne diseases and food contamination, stressing the need for the FCT Administration (FCTA) to rise up to the challenge and improve the living conditions of the IDPs.

 

He, however, said that a report was already being collated to address perceptible areas of interventions in Abuja, adding that the overall goal of the AEPB was to scale up hygiene promotion practices in the FCT.

 

Ajueyitsi said that the board also had a list of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) needs in all the satellite towns of Abuja, adding, however, that there was a need for improved collaboration between relevant stakeholders to promote hygiene practices in the FCT.

 

NAN reports that no fewer than 6,000 persons living at Dagban and Wassa IDPs camps in the FCT lack access to toilet facilities. (NAN)
TAK/JPE/OOK
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Edited by Joseph Edeh and Dayo Komolafe

Health

Foundation trains teachers, students on environmental education

Foundation trains teachers, students on environmental education
By Talatu Maiwada
Environment
Abuja, June 4, 2018 (NAN) Youth Initiative for Sustainable Human Development in Africa (YiSHDA) says it has trained no fewer than 200 students on environmental education in the FCT.
Mr Moses Agbara, Director of Communication, YiSHDA, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
According to Agbara, the training was conducted in collaboration with Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB).
“These are part of the activities to commemorate 2018 World Environmental Day scheduled for June 5,’’ he said.
Agbara said 200 students and 10 teachers who were selected from 10 schools across the six area councils of the FCT benefited from the School Environmental Programme (SEP).
He listed some of the participating schools to include Government Girls Secondary School Abaji, Model Secondary School, Maitama, and Government Secondary School Kubwa, among others.
Agbara said the School Environmental Programme (SEP) was a comprehensive environmental education programme developed by the foundation to create a platform for environmental awareness among young people.
The objective of the programme, he said, was to strengthen the capacity of 200 young people to solve environmental challenges and to promote understanding of environment and economic development.
He said environmental education was extremely important, in ensuring that new generations understood the importance and significance of the environment and how to protect it.
Agbara said pollution and industrial gases amongst other things interfered with environmental well-being on a regular basis hence the need to ensure proactive steps were taken to care for the environment.
He added that providing proper knowledge to future generations would help to flourish the environment as the survival of the world depended on it.
“Environmental education provides important opportunities for students to become engaged in real world issues that transcend classroom walls.
“They can see the relevance of their classroom studies to the complex environmental issues confronting our planet and they will acquire skills needed to be creative problem solvers and powerful advocates.
“The programme will give young people the opportunity to make real difference to their own quality of life, their local community as well as contributing to the future well-being of the planet,’’ he added.
Agbara said that, meeting the needs of global citizenry both ecologically, economically, culturally required understanding and creative problem solving.
He said the pursuit of sustainable development and environmental conservation policies, objectives and targets required the public to be sufficiently sensitised to the multiple dimensions of environment and development.
In commemoration of the 2018 World Environmental Day, Agbara said the foundation in partnership with AEPB would organise,`Young Environmental Exhibition and Awards’ for best participating schools on seeking environmental problems and solution. (NAN)
TIM/GOM/MST
Edited by Gregory Mmaduakolam/Muhammad Suleiman Tola

Environment

AEPB seeks strengthened collaboration with sanitation stakeholders – Official

NAN-AE-8
Collaboration
By Tosin Kolade
Abuja, Feb. 16, 2018 (NAN) The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has expressed its willingness to collaborate with the National Task Group on Sanitation (NTGS) to improve hygiene practices and environmental protection in the FCT.

 

Mr Ibrahim Mukhtar, AEPB’s Head of Information and Outreach, told New Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday that the agency was striving to stamp out indiscriminate dumping of wastes in the city centre.

 

He said that the AEPB Act of 1997, which set up the AEPB, made the agency the sole body to manage environmental waste and clear refuse from the city.

 

Mukhtar said that the newly constituted management board of AEPB had a clearer mandate, while the activities of the agency had been extended to cover all the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

 

He, therefore, said that the collection of sanitation levies by faceless persons in the area councils had to stop.

 

“The AEPB now has a new board; its activities have now been extended to the area councils to manage the environment.

 

“We are now saying that it is an offence for people in the area councils to go about harassing people for levies for the environment.

 

“That is why we want other sanitation stakeholders to partner with us to make our mandate work,’’ he said.

 

Mukhtar stressed that successes recorded in efforts to promote human health and child survival were seriously hampered via indiscriminate disposal of waste.

 

He called on the stakeholders to support the government in its efforts to expand the citizens’ access to potable water supply and protect the environment from filth.

 

He, however, urged FCT residents to also desist from throwing garbage into manholes, roads, empty places or illegal refuse dumpsites.

 

Mukhtar said that the board was putting some measures in place to ensure the proper management of all the waste dumpsites across the FCT.

 

He, however, warned that the government alone could not provide all the basic sanitation facilitates which the citizens needed.

 

He said that the scaling up of sanitation and hygiene projects across the country required the collective efforts of all the citizens. (NAN)
TAK/MOL/OOK
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Edited by Mustapha Lamidi and Dayo Komolafe