Water: conserving and keeping it clean

By
Damian Daga
When the late Nigerian Afro Juju legend, Fela Kuti sang “water e no get enemy...” he probably meant water is appreciated and needed by all and sundry. Water constitutes 70.9 percent of the earth’s surface. Water which is essential for all known forms of life is broken down on earth into 96.5 percent as oceans, 1.7 percent as groundwater, 1.7 percent as glaciers and ice caps, 0.001 percent in air as vapour, precipitation and clouds while only 2.5 percent is fresh-water.

According to Wikipedia, water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state. Water’s scientific name is known as “dihydrogen monoxide.”

Regrettably, even with perceived improved access to safe drinking water, statistics indicate that approximately one billion people, none the less lack access to safe drinking water. With the over 7 billion people on the planet, statistics say that each drinks from 2 to 4 litres of water every day with most of the water drank embedded in the food eaten. With this comes pressure on water resources which call for sustainable means of using available water resources. This includes consuming less water-intensive products; reduce the scandalous food wastage: 30% of the food produced worldwide is never eaten and the water used to produce it is definitively lost; and produce more food, of better quality, with less water among others.

By and large, the knowledge of our water footprint would greatly enhance our water regimen and the correlation between water and development.

So to say, the important role of water in economic growth can not be over-emphasized. Already, indicators point to the fact that in three decades, the demand for water will exceed supply by 50 percent. If that happens, what would happen to the use of water for sundry uses in agriculture, transportation, etc?

On the one hand, lack of access to safe drinking water is a great public health crisis. It is on record that about 4,500 children die every day from waterborne diseases, which is more than those who die from malaria, HIV-AIDS and tuberculosis combined.
The daily struggle by millions of people to access clean and safe drinking water also hampers development, especially in Nigeria in general and Benue State in particular. This anomaly affects many, from the women who go in search of water to political battles over international rivers to melting icepack and rising sea levels, no one is left out on the long run. Most of the water shortages are caused by the ills of pollution, political unrest, and corruption.

As earlier noted, the availability of water is essential for a healthy economy and a flourishing ecosystem. It is in this light that it becomes pertinent for responsible governments to stop playing politics with the water issue. Rather, balancing the fate of economies with the health of individuals and of the environment as a whole should be paramount.

To this end, all hands have to be on deck to conserve water resources. Little wonder; the World Health Organisation gives the following 10 facts on water:
i.Water scarcity occurs even in areas where there is plenty of rainfall or freshwater. How water is conserved, used and distributed in communities and the quality of the water available can determine if there is enough to meet the demands of households, farms, industry and the environment.
ii.Water scarcity affects one in three people on every continent of the globe. The situation is getting worse as needs for water rise along with population growth, urbanization and increases in household and industrial uses.
iii.Almost one fifth of the world’s population (about 1.2 billion people) live in areas where the water is physically scarce. One quarter of the global population also live in developing countries that face water shortages due to a lack of infrastructure to fetch water from rivers and aquifers.
iv.Water scarcity forces people to rely on unsafe sources of drinking water. It also means they cannot bathe or clean their clothes or homes properly.
v.Poor water quality can increase the risk of such diarrhoeal diseases as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery, and other water-borne infections. Water scarcity can lead to diseases such as trachoma (an eye infection that can lead to blindness), plague and typhus.
vi.Water scarcity encourages people to store water in their homes. This can increase the risk of household water contamination and provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes - which are carriers of dengue fever, malaria and other diseases.
vii.Water scarcity underscores the need for better water management. Good water management also reduces breeding sites for such insects as mosquitoes that can transmit diseases and prevents the spread of water-borne infections such as schistosomiasis, a severe illness.
viii.Lack of water has driven up the use of wastewater for agricultural production in poor urban and rural communities. More than 10% of people worldwide consume foods irrigated by wastewater that can contain chemicals or disease-causing organisms.
ix. Millennium Development Goal number 7, target 10 aims to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Water scarcity could threaten progress to reach this target.
x.Water is an essential resource to sustain life. As governments and community organizations make it a priority to deliver adequate supplies of quality water to people, individuals can help by learning how to conserve and protect the resource in their daily lives.

Water is indeed life, so let us all try and keep it clean and safe for drinking and other uses.

Ills of the thriving charcoal business

By
Damian Daga
Published in The Voice on Wednesday 13th June, 2012.

Charcoal is generally known as a dark or black form of carbon obtained by usually heating wood in an enclosed space without air. This charcoal is thereby used as fuel in cooking for either as the following: for drawing, smelting, absorbent, etc. Its use as fuel or fire could be traced back to the introduction of fire use in metalwork, which was developed after 4000 BC. Specifically, artisans, after deploying several other means of heating fire, discovered they could create a hotter fire by burning carbonized (partially burned) sticks and twigs. Eventually, they produced charcoal, a compact, efficient fuel, by slowly smoldering wood in an oven with little air.

This discovery led to felling of trees in forests in order to produce charcoal for several fuel uses which transcended just smelting to cooking, among others. It is appalling to note that this discovery which was made eons ago is still in use in countries like Nigeria in general and in Benue State in particular.

Not too long ago in the 80s, local government areas in Benue State such as Vandeikya had many forest reserves overlooked by the communities or certain families. All that is now in the past as scores of forest trees have been felled without replacement. In place of most forests in these areas are farmlands and homes.

In this regard, the expansionist need superseded the need of these forest owners in reserving the forests. They saw more gain in either felling the trees for timber, charcoal or simply expanding farmlands or homesteads.

The rising cost of petroleum products such as kerosene and gas as well as the high cost of operating electric cookers obviously gave rise to Nigerians embracing the use of charcoal in locally made charcoal stoves popularly known as “Abacha Stove” in the mid 90s. These stoves have a hollow base where charcoal is stoked and lit. It usually takes a while for the embers to properly light but once they do, they burn steadily. This process is said to cook food faster and better. Whether the aforementioned assertion is true or not, the use of charcoal in the long run attracts many environmental ills.

Charcoal making process is considerably easy and cheaper with little investment hence, the rush by the private sector and locals into its production from the available resource in the environment. Most definitely, the cost of using charcoal may augur well for the community but the overall cost in terms of environmental damage cannot be overemphasised. Although its use plays a major role in our economy and energy sector as an ideal fuel, charcoal is never the less a form of “dirty fuel.”

Suffice it to stress that charcoal, which is sold in the local areas of Benue State for 500 naira per bag (averagely 800-100 naira in urban areas), is an in-efficient fuel to produce and un-clean. In comparison, charcoal stoves which are usually out-door used, in as much as they are more efficient to use than firewood stoves still lag behind kerosene, electric and gas stoves.
In essence, the high use of charcoal results to the high consumption of wood which in turn results to more emission of CO2, CO and Cb4. The question is how to produce sustainable basis charcoal without causing deforestation and create a neural carbon cycle. There is no gain saying the fact that deforestation comes with loss of wildlife and other environmental degradation ills such as desertification.

This booming charcoal business which is fuelled by the poverty in the rural areas and sustained by the exploding population among the urban middle class and poor who find it cheaper to use charcoal in place of soaring kerosene price is not helping matters with climate change adaptation in the rural areas and North Central Nigeria. This brings to the fore the need for the National Environmental Standards Regulatory and Enforcement Agency (NESREA) under the Federal Ministry of Environment to step up its regulatory role of protecting forest resources as stipulated by the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife and Flora (CITES).

If mitigating moves are not put in place by appropriate authorities in checking the charcoal business, our forests would soon disappear do away with the traditional role of trees providing living things oxygen in the course of photosynthesis. More so, this anomaly coupled with other human activities is responsible for far reaching impacts of global warming and climate change.

To buttress this point, experts assert that only 5 percent of the country’s forest resource is standing, as those felled has not been replenished, as it ought to be. Little wonder, governments usually organise tree planting events year in, year out but do not put properly managed and supervised machinery in place to sustain the growth of the trees.

Asked if he knows the implication of the charcoal he sells in bulk to retailers, a charcoal producer who operates in Gwer West Local Government Area of Benue State, Ahangba Ikyarsha, said he is not aware, although he confirmed that he pays off certain government forestry officials when they are caught transporting the charcoal.

According to Ikyarsha, he sees the business as a good venture to make money without depending on the government adding that he buys the trees he cuts down from locals and subsequently processes into charcoal.

By and large, as a matter of urgency, the introduction of clean and efficient cooking stoves among the Nigerian populace, especially the local ones, which will cut down about 80 percent of the use of fuel will spur the country on the way to sustainable development and a cleaner and more environment friendly cooking practice.

World Environment Day: The Green Economy Way

 By
Damian Daga
Published 6th June, 2012 in The Voice Newspaper.

When the world first celebrated the World Environment Day in 1973, it was a mile stone event geared towards increasing public awareness on the importance of the environment. For factual purposes, there wouldn't be a world without the environment and a healthy and clean one for that matter. The day as implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) holds every year's 5th June to raise global awareness of the need to take positive environmental action. The day which is similar to Earth Day opens avenues for discussions and concerted actions towards reclaiming the earth and preventing or correcting degradation and other activities that gradually destroy the earth.

As the world yesterday celebrated the environment in this year's (2012) event, the show of undiluted love and need to reinvigorate our actions towards a better environment for sustainable development was aptly covered by the theme: Green Economy: Does it include you? This brings some pertinent questions to the fore.

According to UNEP, Green Economy, which commonly refers to the alternative and more sustainable way of doing business in the world, aims at an improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. So to say, green economy could be considered as an economic environment that achieves low carbon emissions, resource efficiency and at the same time is socially inclusive.

The initiative of green economy came to the front burner in late 2008. With green economy in place, it is envisioned that the provision of comprehensive and practical working machinery, through scrutiny and policy support for investing in green sectors and in greening environmental unfriendly sectors would be achieved.

In practical terms, green economy gives rise to growth in income and employment is driven by public and private investments that reduce carbon emissions and pollution, enhance energy and resource efficiency, and prevent the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, there needs to be a melting point for these investments with support by targeted public expenditure, policy reforms and regulation changes.

By and large, green economy most times seems complex for the common man in as much as it concerns him, which brings up the pertinent question from the 2012 WED theme; what does green economy mean to you? Literary, as much as Green Economy is about social equity and inclusiveness, then technically and practically, it is all about you, you and definitely us all.

Regrettably, here in Nigeria, the emphasis of green economy is yet to make firm grounds, save for Cross Rivers State, which has made bold moves to save her rainforest and in return, has benefited from carbon credit in the REDD++ programme.

Although one may ask why all the fuss about green economy, without recourse to the benefits in terms of environment and other options for sustainability, investing in green economy also creates multitudes of jobs. Needless to emphasise, jobs generation enhances economic growth in any country.

Little wonder, United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, at the last World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, advocated for a shift to a Green Economy. In his words; “we mined our way to growth, we burnt our way to prosperity. We believe in consumption without consequences. Those days are gone. In the 21st Century, supplies are running short and global thermostat is running high.”

True to type, by 2008, over 2.3 million people in six leading countries in green jobs, China, Denmark, Germany, India, Spain, and the United States, were employed in this low-carbon sector. It is in this regard that it is worthy of note that the Green Economy is not just a passing environmental craze but rather, one of the best solutions available for sustainable economic growth with recognition of the social factor.

The time for switching to a green economy is now as we celebrate WED so as to make a global move to low-carbon economy while creating avenues for millions could be lifted from poverty. That is why the Executive Director of UNEP, Achim Steiner, stated thus: “The findings underline that (the green economy) can include millions more people in terms of overcoming poverty and delivering improved livelihoods for this and future generations. It is a positive message of opportunity in a troubled world of challenges.” This happenstance would enable the world to emerge into a new world order from what obtains today whereby, the industrial revolution and technology plus other obnoxious human practices have led to climate change.

Nigeria too has to embrace the Green Economy by investing in green industries, renewable energies, waste management and clean technologies that will ultimately lead to economic growth and little damage to the ecosystem.

Furthermore, what better period is there to work towards sustainable development than now, with Rio+20 around the corner? It is anticipated that this year's WED theme: Green Economy: Does it include you? Will influence deliberation at the environmental conference and countries such as Nigeria and the developed world, will work out modalities on targets and agreements to assist halt environmental degradation around the world.