Stakeholders at a roundtable on environment sustainability in Delta have called for concerted effort aimed at addressing the increasing effect of climate change evidenced by desertification and forceful migration in the Northern parts of Nigeria and perennial flooding in the south.
This was among the resolutions reached on Tuesday in Asaba, during the unveiling and partners investiture of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, FUPRE Center for Sustainable Development.
The Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, Prof. Akpofure Rimi-Rukeh, said that if nothing was done about rising sea level in the coastal area due to climate change, it could lead to conflicts when people in the area are forced to relocate to the interior.
Rimi-Rukeh also stressed the need to create a forum to propagate the activities of man against the environment, adding that ”this will help to lesson the burden we are putting on the environment and ensure we have a Sustainable future.
”There is also need to green our environment, because this is very critical.”
On the FUPRE sustainable development centre, Rimi-Rukeh said that the centre was established to know how to reach out to the entire world.
” Because when you talk about the world, there is no compactment. Anything that happens to Warri River can get to Atlantic ocean the next day.”
Similarly, an Environmentalist Dr Newton Jibunoh, attributed some of the conflicts in the Northern parts of the country to the effects of desertification and migration.
He therefore called for more advcacy in the fight against desert encroachment.
”Planet earth is the only planet that last life and we must not play with it,” he said.
On his part the State Director General of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), Dr Andy Ilabor, said that his office had set up data collection centres in the 25 local government areas of the state.
Ilabor said that the centres would help to provide information to analyze some of the challenges and pledged the government’s support to the Environment Sustainability Initiative.
Also, the Director of the FUPRE Center for Sustainable Development Dr Elias Emelike identified indiscriminate disposal of refuse and building on waterways as some factors that causes flooding, noting the roundtable was organized to proffer solutions to current environmental challenges.
The discussants advocated concerted effort by governments, groups and the public aimed at addressing the increasing effect of climate change.
Members of the academia, the clergy, civil society and development organizations attended the summit.