As part of efforts to find a solution to the issue of flooding in states across the country, environmental experts from the United Kingdom and Nigeria met to tackle this menace.
This came as 34 of Nigeria’s 36 states are currently battle flooding challenges, with several cases leading to the loss of lives and destruction of properties.
An environmental researcher, Professor Colin Thorne of Nottingham University, while speaking at a one-day workshop organised by the University of Nottingham in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, revealed that a research work, titled Blue-Green Cities Initiative and developed under the auspices of the Blue-Green Cities Consortium.
According to Professor Thorne, Nigerian states can leverage the initiative to become resilient to floods and droughts.
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WHAT THIS MEANS:
- The Blue-Green Cities Initiative, if fully tapped into by the federal and states government, will tackle the issue of flooding, which is common during the rainy season.
- The initiative will create better air quality, water quality, soil quality, while also providing public amenity and public health structures.
- The research also aims at city planning, design and engineering, where Nigerian states can be transformed to manage water, wastewater and stormwater sustainably.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, Prof Garba Sharubutu, emphasised the need to expedite sustainable solutions that would build resilience in the face of growing environmental challenges.
He said the council would partner the Blue-Green initiative project to promote sustainable urban agriculture, resilient urban food systems, flood management and utilisation for food production in urban areas and development of flood and resilient crop varieties.
He said:
“This will create avenues through which some of the flood/wastewaters generated within the city can be used economically for food production.
This initiative is coming as Edo State was recently ravaged by flood following heavy downpour in the south-south state.
