By Joy Odor
The Director, African Climate Reporters (ACR), Comadre Mohammed Zakari, has called on Nigerians to change from culture’ of throwing away plastic and garbage on the streets, car-parks, railway train stations and others, to save the environment against all forms of trash, filthiness, pollution, and to avert any tendency of outbreak of health disaster.
Comadre Mohammed, who made the call during an interactive section with stakeholders on environmental in Kaduna, said there are estimated 1 million plastic bags used every minute, and a single plastic bag can take 1,000 years to degrade.
He said there is need to raise more awareness to the public on the dangers of throwing away all forms of trash into the street in plastic bags and other plastic wastes.
According to him, it is the responsibility of every citizen to save the environment against all forms of challenges, which could be a form of threat to existence of human and animal lives.
Mohammed stressed that, “If you go to the car park, fuel station, football stadium and even train station, you will see many plastic leathers dominating the places.
“Poor awareness on the danger posed by plastic leathers is the reason behind the wild spread of plastic waste in the society.
“World Cleanup Day is a civic movement, uniting 180 countries and millions of people across the world to clean up the planet” he said.
Responding, the National Chairman of Kaduna Metro Environment and Awareness, Comrade Jibril Mohammed, stressed the need to support the recycling companies across northern Nigeria.
He emphasized that, “Government needs to help most of the recycling companies with steady electricity, in order to reduce the plastic polluting disturbing the society.”
“In addition, he said “The effects of throwing garbage anywhere poses a great danger to human, animal and even plants, aside creating a mess and negatively affecting the appearance of the surrounding. Indeed, the rotting waste and garbage start to stink and hungry animals lurk around to feed on it,” he noted.
In his own remark, the team leader of ‘Save the Environment,’ Mr. Paul Isaac, said hrowing garbage anywhere is an open invitation to the breeding of parasites, pathogens and read of various harmful diseases,.
He called on Nigerians to change their attitudes of blocking water passage and stop any construction on waterways to avert flood and other environment challenges.
To this end, Nigerians have been called upon to be a Plastic Changer for one day,
“We encourage you to become a Plastic Changer for this day. You don’t need to register but can do it from wherever you are – whether it is in your neighborhood, at a beach nearby, at the forest river, anywhere really.
“Just bring your own bag to collect the lost waste. You can even combine this event with any other activity you are doing already, for example, if you are on a picnic with friends or on a (daily) walk
World Clean up Day is usually celebrated every 19 september with Volunteers across the globe to save the environment.
