As part of the celebration of this year’s World Environment Day, an Environmental Justice Activist, Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface has called on the Rivers State Government to give more attention to environmental issues so as not to engage in acts that jeopardize nature and the earth that supports lives.
Fyneface who is also a Human Rights Defender and Executive Director, Advocacy Centre, said considering the importance of this year’s theme: “Time for Nature”, it is actually time for the government to give more attention to nature and the role it plays in the provision of essential infrastructure that supports life such as good drinking water, food, and the air.
According to him, there is need for the state government to provide safe pipe-borne water for Rivers people to enable them have access to clean water for domestic use and running water to wash their hands regularly as recommended by Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) as preventive measure against contracting Corona virus Disease especially now that COVID-19 cases are of increase in Rivers State.
It would be recalled that Governor Nyesom Wike in paragraphs 87, 88 and 89 of his 2020 budget speech promised to provide water for Rivers people to cover over two million residents of Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt City Local Government Areas including those in rural communities under “The Urban Water Sector Reform and Port Harcourt Water and Sanitation Project”.
The Environmental Justice activist also used this World Environment Day 2020 to reiterate its call for Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to provide clean running water for the Ogoni people as recommended by UNEP Report since 2011, urging both the Rivers State government and HYPREP to note that water is an essential infrastructure that supports life as the theme of this year’s World Environment Day has noted.
He also used the medium to call on the state government to consider the recruitment of the Environmental Marshalls as promised, and also for the Federal Government of Nigeria to give attention to erosion issues as impact of climate change in the South-East and other parts of Nigeria.
