An NGO, Women Environmental Programme (WEP), on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to speed up the implementation of the Green Wall Sahara (GWSP) Programme.

The Executive Director of WEP, Mrs. Priscilla Achakpa, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

GWSP is an African initiative, aimed at combating desertification in the arid north of Nigeria.

Achakpa applauded the programme as an integrated development strategy for combating desertification and mitigating the effects of drought and climate change.

She observed that desert encroachment and desertification were assuming a frightening proportion and that the impact raised security concerns, especially among the vulnerable groups.

According to her, the impact of climate change is more on women in the rural areas as they have little or no understanding of the issues involved.

To this end, she said WEP would conduct a study on gender awareness of climate change issues.

'Women are most at risk because they have to work hard to earn a living," she said, and stressed that adequate information on climate change was necessary to evolve steps to control it.

(NAN)