Southern Province — The Director General of Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), Dr Rose Mukankomeje has urged lecturers and students from the National University of Rwanda (NUR), to sensitise people on challenges concerning environmental management.

"Our target is to protect the environment and eradicate poverty. We shall increase access to clean water for the rural poor, reduce the number of people living in slums, promote Universal Primary Education and combat HIV/Aids," Mukankomeje said.

She also outlined the challenges associated with climate change, desertification and loss of biodiversity and linked them to the continued deforestation and wetland clearing.

"There is no way we can achieve Vision 2020, if we don't pay attention to our environment, whose degradation has a negative impact on our lives," she said and cited Gishwati, a former forest which is now used for livestock grazing.

"We don't want our children to ask us why we never protected them against the impacts of environmental degradation," Mukankomeje emphasised.

She requested the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Dr. Alphonse Ngagi, to make the environmental law a compulsory course at the university and urged students to transform their knowledge into action by writing on environmental protection and to sensitize the population about the dangers of environment degradation. Moray Rwigamba, the legal advisor of REMA, urged students to participate actively in environment programmes.