Group convenes workshop on zero waste for stakeholders in Edo

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) on Thursday in Benin convened a workshop for stakeholders towards addressing the poor waste management in Edo.

Addressing the participants, the Executive Director, ERA/FoEN, Mr Chima Williams, said the workshop, anchored on ‘zero waste’, was necessary due to the porosity of waste management in the state.

Williams, who was represented by Mr Babawale Obayanju, the Programme Officer, Media and Communication in the organisation, noted that managing waste was a culture that all need to imbibe for a clean and healthy environment.

He said as an environmental advocate, ERA/FoEN had developed a seven-year zero waste plan that could help the state overcome the environmental challenge.

The executive director regretted that the state did not leverage on the potentials inherent in waste recycling to make fortune for the state and the people.

Plastics generation, he said, was becoming extremely high in the state and would soon begin to negatively impact the ecosystem.

“It is a fact that plastics do not degrade, but it photogrades, the substance which is found in the seas and imposes hazard on the fish.

“We may not feel the effect now, but we will soon begin to see it because we all eat fish,” he said.

Mr Kessingston Osifo, the Chairman, Oredo Local Government Area of Edo, described zero waste as a great initiative that all should embrace.

The problem of waste generation, he said, had become a major challenge facing the council as a result of indiscriminate dumping of refuse in unauthorised places.

In her goodwill message, Mrs Blessing Ehigiator, the Head of Department, Environment in the local government area, urged the participants to adhere to the principle of Rs in environment, which include Rethink, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, among others.

Ehigiator, however, sought the support of non-state actors on environment in the area of equipment just as she noted that waste management was always capital intensive.

By Usman Aliyu