Fashola advises Nigerians on climate change
Fashola advises Nigerians on climate change
Jesusegun Alagbe
The Minister of Power, Works and
Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has asked Nigerians to take the issue of
climate change seriously.
Fashola also suggested how to address
the issue while speaking on “Urban design and climate change” at the
first Nigeria Urban Design Forum on Thursday.
The forum was conveyed by a former Lagos
State Commissioner for Town Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Toyin
Ayinde, a statement said.
Fashola said evidence had demonstrated
that not only was the threat of climate change real, but that its impact
was already being felt and that human beings were perhaps the most
vulnerable.
He said, “From diminishing fresh water
sources to desertification and loss of arable land to high water levels
and flooding, survival-induced conflict in the search for land, food,
and water, higher cost of living arising from volatile rises and crashes
in the cost of oil and hydrocarbons as sources of energy for fuel,
heating, lighting and production of goods and services, the human
civilisation faces a turbulent survival.
“The examples at home are many — the
erosion of Nigeria’s coastal waterfronts, loss of property and lives as a
result of flooding, loss of grazing land as a result of desert
encroachment, diminution of Lake Chad, silting of many rivers, requiring
humongous capital outlay to re-dredge and maintain them to serve their
sustenance purpose of transport and agriculture, clashes between
herdsman and communities, power outages, high cost of fuel, electricity
and drinking water, etc.”
In the light of all this, the minister
made some recommendations, asking Nigerians to change their lifestyle if
the climate change phenomenon would be successfully addressed.
He said, “We, as the cause of the
problem, in the way that we have lived and the choices we have made,
must change. This is a change that is dictated by the necessity to
survive and this is the heart of adaptation on the compelling relevance
of this forum.
“The way we use land, the way we use
electricity, the way we use petrol, the way we use water, the way we use
transport facilities and the way we do many other things that we took
for granted now demand a rethink and adaptation. This is because our
planet has changed; and for it to serve us, we must adapt.
“My proposed method of intervention will
be to bring up a few examples, ask questions, and leave us to reflect
and make the choice whether or not to adapt. In many parts of Nigeria
today, it is commonplace to see houses built without windows and
therefore no access to sunlight.
“Although these occurrences are common
with some of our very vulnerable people, many of whom live in unplanned
settlements called slums, the time to rethink installing a window in
such houses is now; and the time to ensure that no such houses (even if
unplanned) are built without windows is now.
“Furthermore, I will quickly mention the
need for designs to embrace energy-saving technology like sensors that
automatically switch off power when not in use, low energy-consuming
light bulbs, all of these must now be standard practice in architecture
and urban design classrooms and seminars.”
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