Writing By Shindong Bala, Editing By Godwin Duru
Kaduna State Government has domesticated the National Climate Change Policy and is now engaging high powered stakeholders to analyze climate change patterns in the state towards mitigating them.
The state Commissioner for Environment, Alhaji Abubakar Buba stated this at the stakeholders engagement plan, organized by the Ministry of Environment with support from UNICEF.
Represented by Assistant Director and Climate Change Desk Officer Mr. Nyam Maikano Gura, the Commissioner explained that climate change affects all the spheres of human endeavors and, government has taken drastic actions in the areas of mitigation and adaptations on the environmental hazards.
He stated that in November last year , the ministry adopted and brought out the national climate change policy which was domesticated after been approved by the governor for implementation.
The commissioner emphasized that the manifestation of climate change includes flooding, drought, changing rainfall patterns , desertifications, extreme heat, and other risks which cut across all sectors of the economy.
In an address, the UNICEF Water Sanitation and Hygiene specialist in Kaduna field Office, Theresa Pama said collaboration with the Ministry was strategic because the ministry has developed a policy on climate change from 2024 to 2028 which focuses on the issues across all sectors and all parts of the state.
Theresa narrated that the workshop draws participants across all the twenty three local government areas in Kaduna State, different sectors and from the Rural Water and Sanitation Agency, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, CSOs, and other stakeholders.
She maintained that the participants will analyze the climate rationale in each of the local government areas in the three zones of the state including trend of vulnerabilities, climate risks and the impact in each of the zones.
“Climate change used to feel as if it’s something far off, but right now we are seeing the realities of these changes. And at community level, we hear people talking about changes, changes in the variations of Some are talking about desert encroachment. Some are talking about the fact that some crops no longer yield as they used to.”
“Some are talking about the heat at particular times of the year. So these are all things that we need to look at. And then we also have some of the things that we are doing which contribute to the effects of climate change, like the felling of trees, which is a very common thing.”
“Each time you see a bag of charcoal, it shows that that’s a tree that has been killed.So in another way, you can say there are dead trees in bags. where you are living, especially in terms of dumping refuse into drainage, it affects the well water. which results in diseases So there are many things that the human beings are doing, which is actually affecting, contributing negatively to the issues of climate.”
Earlier, Special Assistant to the State Governor on Climate Change Mallam Yusuf Idris Amoke cited the ginger disease which significantly affected output of production in some areas of the state as an impact of climate change.
“If you go to the ginger market globally, it has risen up so steeply I mean steeply, because we had ginger infestation some times ago, and it is the best in the world, and it’s a major supplier to the global market. So the impact of climate change has actually proliferated these diseases that affected the ginger production. Also, we had the issue of tomato infestation some time ago. So these are impacts of climate change we’ve been experiencing flooding. And this flooding is also an output.”
Mallam Amoke stressed that the rainfall pattern has been very erratic with adverse effects on food production in Kaduna State.
According to him, government was also working on having the Kaduna State Council on Climate Change and had already worked on having desk officers in the various relevant MDAs as well as in all the local governments areas.
“That is very important, most especially that of the 23 local governments because the impact of climate change, we need people who are trained around climate change to actually go into communities to talk to these local farmers on what to do and what not to do to interpret certain climatic information to them on proactive measures and to mitigate against certain impacts of climate change.”
Cov/Shindong Bala
