Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Nsima U. Ekere, has pledged support for the United Nation’s Sustainable Development concept of “develop but don’t destroy” as a means of maintaining natural balance and keeping the environment safe for human existence.
The NDDC MD stated this on Monday during the World Environment Day celebration organized by the Commission at the Arena Event Centre in Port Harcourt.
Mr Ekere, who was represented by the NDDC Director, Special Duties, Dr. Princewill Ekanim, said that the sustainable development concept clearly recognized that though development was needed for human advancement, the environment was crucial for human existence.
According to the NDDC boss, the UN’s strategy was “to get governments, aid foundations and NGOs on the same page about what global problems most urgently need to be solved and how to measure progress. The hope is that getting all these groups pointed in the same direction will result in greater impact in maintaining the sanctity of the environment and upholding the concept of SD.”
He is of the view that “God premised the environment on a zero waste profile by creating two major kingdoms, the plant and animal kingdoms. Both kingdoms rely on each other for existence and survival.
“There was a strict balance until the era of civilization when man embarked on economic development like construction of highways, building of large malls, stadia etc., which led to massive destruction of trees and other members of the plant kingdom.”
The NDDC Chief Executive noted that the destructions led to distortions of the natural balance as the environmental systems were unable to use up the excess by-products of man’s activities, including gases like carbon dioxide, methane etc, “creating the so called greenhouse effect on our God given environment.”
In Nigeria, he noted, “the issue of the drying Lake Chad in the North East, the fast advancing Sahara Desert in the entire North to the devastation of the forests and waters of the Niger Delta region by oil exploration and heavy oil spills, as well as the current black soot phenomenon in Port Harcourt and its environs, call for serious environmental concern by government and its agencies.”
Rivers State Commissioner for Environment, Prof. Roseline Konya, who sent in a goodwill message said that the digital revolution in the world had contributed to a situation where man had been further distanced from nature. She said that even the way houses were designed these days fail to take advantage of the natural environment.”