Climate Watch: Flood, erosion displacing Nigerians from their homes  

Despite directly impacting our communities, health, and livelihood, climate-related reports usually take a back seat to dominant news beats like politics and business. Climate Watch aims to ensure you never miss important stories on climate change and actions being taken towards limiting its impact.

Here is a round-up of last week’s climate stories:

• The reality of climate change impacts in Nigeria is that many people have been displaced, lost their homes, lives, and livelihood as a result of it.  The same goes for residents of Obogoro community in Bayelsa who have fled their homes after erosion destroyed buildings and land in the area last week. Deep gullies which swallowed up homes on August 2, left the area inhabitable. Ada Gwegwe, an activist is using a campaign code-named ‘Save Obogoro’, to advocate and appeal to the government on behalf of residents of the community. She said the incident had occurred several times in the past and the deep gully currently in the area constitutes a threat to the entire community. Read more here

• In another scenario, pictures shared by TheCable in this report showed how several communities in Osun were destroyed by flood after a downpour last week Tuesday. Residents of the communities called out to the government and it responded as Adegboyega Oyetola, the state governor, immediately went on an inspection visit to the areas, assuring them of government’s efforts to prevent future occurrence of such incidents. He however asked residents to change their attitude by not dumping refuse into drainages or mounting structures on waterways. See pictures here.

• President Muhammadu Buhari is soon to head other African leaders on the actualisation of the great green wall initiative (GGW) initiative referred to as a world wonder and seen as the solution for tackling desertification in the Sahel region. Mahmood Abubakar, minister of environment, said Buhari will assume the presidency of heads of state and governments of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAAGGW) later this year. Mahmood said the PAAGGW council of ministers believes Buhari is capable of taking the programme delivery to a higher level, as well as ensuring that the initiative can receive the necessary support from the international community. More on this here.

• After years of pollution, negligence, deaths by pollution, complaints from people of Ogoni, the federal government has in recent times been more intentional about the cleanup and rehabilitation of the area. As part of its rehabilitation process in Ogoni land, the federal government is set to train 5,000 Ogoni youths on sustainable alternative livelihood, provide potable water in Ogoni and construct a centre for environmental studies/remediation. He added that over 400 Ogoni women were also trained in agribusiness under the sustained livelihood programme. The minister said 18 lots of the remediation projects have been completed and certified by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) while five more are undergoing the certification process. Find out more here.

• In a bid for environmental justice, the Lagos state government has approved 24 magistrate courts to prosecute environmental offenders. David Oriyomi, president, Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAMN), mentioned some of the courts to include court 4; court 10, Igbosere, court 4, Tinubu, court 18, court 20 in Ogba, and court 2 in Ogudu, as well as six mobile courts, where offenders will be tried on the go. He said the development will help to improve the aesthetics of Lagos, adding that waste managers are ready to take action to implement the existing environmental laws. Read more details here.