From Seyi Tayese, Yenagoa
The Bayelsa Ministry of Environment and non-governmental organisations on Tuesday called for stronger collaboration to combat air pollution and protect the state’s ecosystem.
The call was made at a stakeholder meeting hosted by the ministry in Yenagoa.
The collaboration aims to strengthen local initiatives for monitoring and tackling air pollution.
The Permanent Secretary, Mr Hamilton Ekeke, who represented the Commissioner for Environment, Dr Ebi Ben-Ololo, reaffirmed the ministry’s readiness to collaborate with stakeholders to preserve Bayelsa’s ecosystem.
The meeting provided a platform for stakeholders to examine gaps in environmental monitoring and response, particularly in oil-producing communities.
The participants expressed concern over the World Health Organisation’s estimate that air pollution causes about seven million deaths annually worldwide.
Menidin Egbo, Coordinator of the Community Environment and Development Network (CEDEN), said air pollution monitoring should have been integrated into assessments of oil spill damage since the establishment of the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) in 2006.
Egbo said periodic reviews of the operations of N9SDRA in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, could have promoted local technologies for addressing air pollution.
He said such efforts could also have helped tackle soil degradation, water contamination and the destruction of forests and crops associated with oil spills.
Ikechukwu Ahaka of the Media Awareness and Justice Initiative (MAJI) said capacity building for stakeholders and government agencies was necessary to improve responses to air pollution.
Ahaka disclosed that MAJI was promoting and installing air quality monitoring devices which runs on open-source technology to monitor ambient air pollution in the Niger Delta.
He said the initiative was designed to strengthen the capacity of local actors to monitor air quality and address pollution in affected communities.
According to him, MAJI is also promoting public awareness and building local capacity to generate empirical data on particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
He said the pollutants posed risks to air quality, human health and ecosystem safety.
Ethel Suamakparaman Onyimbo, President of the Oloibiri Women Association (OWA), commended Gov. Douye Diri for supporting collaborative initiatives to address environmental pollution in Bayelsa.
Onyimbo said stronger alliances among stakeholders would reinforce efforts to tackle ambient air pollution through sustained grassroots action.
She described Bayelsa’s approval to host the governance secretariat of DeltasUnite, a global initiative for protecting vulnerable delta environments, as evidence of the state’s commitment to environmental protection.
She also recalled Diri’s participation in discussions on China-Africa cooperation in river, coastal and delta governance at East China Normal University in Shanghai.
The discussions took place during the opening of the fifth United Nations Ocean Decade Conference on Mega Deltas.
Onyimbo said the collaborative approach to protecting delta ecosystems should be extended to tackling air pollution through community-based interventions.
She expressed concern that developing countries bore a disproportionate share of the health burden associated with air pollution.
She added that women and children, including the unborn, were particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of outdoor air pollution.
The stakeholders called for sustained cooperation among government agencies, civil society organisations and local communities to strengthen air pollution monitoring and mitigation efforts.
