Godwin Haruna
16 October 2009
Lagos — Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, declared yesterday that economic, social, industrial and personal activities of people impact negatively on the ecosystem, resulting in global warming and change in climatic condition of the world.
Speaking at a one-day seminar on "Sustainable City Development- No Time to Waste," the governor said reality of the threat of unsustainable development has become a major source of worry to the world.
Represented by the state Deputy Governor, Mrs. Sarah Sosan, Fashola said, "using Lagos State as a case study, a retrogressive glance at the climatic condition of the state over the past years, clearly reveal significant changes in weather, temperature, rainfall, wind and precipitation patterns. "
He said the seminar was a practical demonstration of the determination of his administration to reclaim and safeguard the environment.
According to him, the solution to reclaiming the environment is simple and that is, there must be attitudinal change to the environment and a re-ordering of the use of nature's gift.
"It is no longer enough to emphasise the need to mitigate the impact of green house gas emission through energy efficiency and conservation of resources.
"It is imperative that we must begin to act to conserve energy in the form of electricity and fossil fuels, this is to minimise wastage and also reduce green house emissions," he said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the State Commi-ssioner for the Environment, Dr. Muiz Banire, said climate change has heightened the fear of hunger, starvation and disease in developing countries which can hardly manage such crises, let alone contain some of the devastating effects such as flooding, hurricane and storm wind.
Banire said where arable land has not been eroded, the unpredictable rainfall patterns negatively affect the output of crops, adding that the current administration has reclaimed quite a large number of open spaces which were being grossly abused and converted them to aesthetically appealing and environment-sustaining parks and gardens.
Also speaking, Swedish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Per Lindgarde, said his country has a long history of focusing on the environment.
He said the SymbioCity concept builds on the increased environmental and economic performance that can be achieved by using the different parts of the urban infrastructure systems to strengthen each other.
He said in a number of schemes, the integrated approach has been used to develop whole new urban areas with an environmental profile.
and commended the admirable steps taken by the state government to tackle the large urban challenges, especially, the Eko Atlantic City project.
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