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Aston Business School

Activist seeks support for Nigeria’s weltlands

Category: Environment

An environment activist, Dr Bolere Elizabeth Ketebu, has said that human- induced abuses in agriculture, housing, infrastructural development and natural resources exploitation, remained the greatest threats to wetlands in the country.
Ketebu, international president of the Wetlands Environmental Protection Initiative (WEPI), a non- governmental organisation interested in wetlands and the proper management of their resource endowment, said at a ceremony to mark the 2013 World Wetlands Day that wetlands in the country “show ruinous signs of degradation and loss of biodiversity.”
The degraded wetlands, according to her, include the Nguru Lake wetlands, Lake Chad and those of the Niger Delta which are shrinking, which are ravaged by pollution due to oil exploration.
Betebu, former Secretary to the Bayelsa State Government (SSG), called on government at all levels to raise awareness of the importance and role of wetlands in water management in Nigeria so that the nation would succeed in providing good life for its people, stressing that “all hands must be on deck to preserve our wetlands.”
She said that wetlands play an invaluable role not only in water filtration and purification but also in the storage of surplus surface water and aids replenishment of underground water.
The activist urged the federal government to urgently ratify and domesticate the Ramsar Convention as well as establish a national directory of wetlands in order of their importance to sustainable development.
She called for appropriate legislation to prohibit the use of wetlands for waste disposal as well as the institution of inter-sectoral collaboration to ensure best practices in their management.    
The United Nations designated the 2nd day of February each year as World Wetlands Day in 1972, following the adoption of the Ramsar Convention of that year which drew global attention to the issue of wetlands across the world.
The day is marked each year with a specific theme to create global awareness on the value and situation of wetlands. The theme for this year is “Wetlands and Water Management”.

Environment

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