Fashola advises Nigerians on climate change

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr.
Babatunde Fashola, has asked Nigerians to take
the issue of climate change seriously.

Fashola also suggested how to address the issue
while speaking on “Urban design and climate
change” at the first Nigeria Urban Design Forum
on Thursday.

The forum was conveyed by a former Lagos
State Commissioner for Town Planning and
Urban Development, Mr. Toyin Ayinde, a
statement said.

Fashola said evidence had demonstrated that
not only was the threat of climate change real,
but that its impact was already being felt and
that human beings were perhaps the most
vulnerable.

He said, “From diminishing fresh water sources
to desertification and loss of arable land to high
water levels and flooding, survival-induced
conflict in the search for land, food, and water,
higher cost of living arising from volatile rises
and crashes in the cost of oil and hydrocarbons
as sources of energy for fuel, heating, lighting
and production of goods and services, the
human civilisation faces a turbulent survival.

“The examples at home are many — the erosion
of Nigeria’s coastal waterfronts, loss of property
and lives as a result of flooding, loss of grazing
land as a result of desert encroachment,
diminution of Lake Chad, silting of many rivers,
requiring humongous capital outlay to re-dredge
and maintain them to serve their sustenance
purpose of transport and agriculture, clashes
between herdsman and communities, power
outages, high cost of fuel, electricity and
drinking water, etc.”

In the light of all this, the minister made some
recommendations, asking Nigerians to change
their lifestyle if the climate change
phenomenon would be successfully addressed.

He said, “We, as the cause of the problem, in
the way that we have lived and the choices we
have made, must change. This is a change that is
dictated by the necessity to survive and this is
the heart of adaptation on the compelling
relevance of this forum.

“The way we use land, the way we use
electricity, the way we use petrol, the way we
use water, the way we use transport facilities
and the way we do many other things that we
took for granted now demand a rethink and
adaptation. This is because our planet has
changed; and for it to serve us, we must adapt.

“My proposed method of intervention will be to
bring up a few examples, ask questions, and
leave us to reflect and make the choice whether
or not to adapt. In many parts of Nigeria today,
it is commonplace to see houses built without
windows and therefore no access to sunlight.

“Although these occurrences are common with
some of our very vulnerable people, many of
whom live in unplanned settlements called
slums, the time to rethink installing a window in
such houses is now; and the time to ensure that
no such houses (even if unplanned) are built
without windows is now.

“Furthermore, I will quickly mention the need
for designs to embrace energy-saving
technology like sensors that automatically switch
off power when not in use, low energy-
consuming light bulbs, all of these must now be
standard practice in architecture and urban
design classrooms and seminars.”