BEVERLY HILLS, SEPTEMBER 13, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has raised the alarm that the River Niger is drying up declaring that an environmental audit of the river would be conducted, with countries bordering the River Niger, in order to save the river from the same fate that befell Lake Chad.
Addressing journalists, on Tuesday, at the end of the 6th Annual Meeting of African Organization Of Supreme Audit Institutions Working Group on Environmental Audit (AFROSAI WGEA) in Abuja, the Acting Auditor of the Federation (AuGF) Mrs Florence Anyanwu confirmed that that River Niger was drying up.
Anyanwu noted that the countries bordering the river have approved the environmental audit of the river and that commencement of the audit will begin at the end of the meeting in Abuja lamenting that the drying up of the River Niger posed social, environmental and economic treat to the communities bordering the river.
“Talks are ongoing on the cooperative environmental audit project on River Niger by Niger Basin Authority consisting of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’ Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Nigeria,” she said.
“When completed, the environmental audit of River Niger will afford the governments the information they need to save the river from further deterioration as well as ensure its continued benefit to bordering communities.”
Mrs Mbah Acha Rose Fomundam, Chair of the AFROSAI WGEA, declared that the environmental audit report of the Lake Chad has been sent to the governments of the four countries surrounding the lake to come up with laws to save the river from total evaporation as the Lake has significantly lost a large portion of its body of water.
“Lake Chad is a shallow lake that ordinarily should be fed with constant rain but, environmental challenges have seen the lake suffer from sustained drop in the volume of rain fall feeding the lake and a growing population that depends on the lake for water, fishing and agriculture,” she said.
“Despite the signing of multilateral agreements on the environment and established institutions, current scientific studies reveal that many of the planet’s ecosystems have rapidly deteriorated over the last 20 years.
“Citizens have increasingly expected that organizations that hurt the environment be held accountable for their actions, with many citizens feeling that government declarations concerning the environment and sustainable development should be subject to independent audits to assess the extent to which they are implemented.”
In her address the Minister of Environment, Mrs. Amina Mohammed, declared that environmental auditing is an essential component of sustainable environmental management as it provides the mechanism for allowing government to know what has gone wrong over time and highlights the need for urgent policy action.
“Our environment is our sustenance and unless we care for our environment, our lives will be at risk. Unless we have a clear knowledge of what is happening to our environment, we may not be able to make appropriate policies for sustainable environmental management,” she said.
Story by David Oputah
