The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) says it is committed to attaining a zero waste environment in Nigeria Edo State in particular.
This was the resolution reached at the organization’s Zero Waste Ambassadors Parliament held in Benin over the weekend.
The parliamentarians who were later paired into three groups with a mandate of proffering a way forward in achieving a clean and zero waste environment in Edo State came up with different recommendations.
In his welcome address, Executive Director, ERA/FoEN, Chima Williams, Esq., said in ERA they believe that no individual can single handedly achieve a zero waste environment, hence the setting up of the Zero Waste Ambassador, which according to him had been on for almost a year now.
While declaring that the activities and engagements by the programme have been yielding positive results since its inception, Chima said: “For us at ERA/FoEN, we believe that nobody can do it alone. The problems are so much enormous. Neither you nor me, neither the government can individually solve our problems. So, this is the time for a collective action; this is the time for a collective engagement; this is the time for a collective projection and collective work, because this is the only way we can solve our problems.”
Tobi Yusuf, in her contribution and recommendation on behalf of other group members, on the sub topic ‘Keeping Liters of our Streets: Our Collective Responsibility,’ attributed indiscriminate dumping of refuse to ignorance, saying that many people do not know that dumping of refuse on the roadside is creating problem to the environment.
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She therefore called for periodic enlightenment of members of the pubic on the dangers associated with dumping of refuse on the roadside and what it could cause to the environment.
She also called for the use of alternative such as clothing bags which according to her could serve for months.
While advocating for sorting and segregation of waste, Yusuf said there was need for waste managers to be up and doing in the timely picking up of waste from different locations rather than keeping them for days.
On her part, Hannah Akpan, from group two of the parliament said waste managers need to be trained for effectiveness and efficiency, adding that another challenge of refuse collection is unavailability of waste managers after packaging such waste for days.
Dr. Ekene Biose of group three who said Nigeria needs a system that works, added that in a society that works, waste are properly sorted and disposed without much delay.
Earlier, Mr. Ubrei- Joe Mariere, of ERA/FoEN said the Waste Parliament was introduced by ERA as a way of bringing the government, community, everybody into a common room and chat.
“There is an issue with our environmental policies, there are issues with our Waste Management Policies that is why we are having the Waste Management crisis that we are having in our society today.
“To tackle this, we came up with Zero Waste Ambassadors, they have become our own exit strategy, they in turn were able to come up with Brand Auditing, which is something that even the state government have never done,” he said.