By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
The North East Development Commission (NEDC) in collaboration with the Borno State Government have organized a 2-day workshop on climate change awareness and use of efficient stoves for women in North East region.
The training programme which is expected to last for two days (Thursday, 22nd to Friday, 23rd September, 2022), would train hundreds of women across the 27 LGAs of the state. The training was held at the Lake Chad Reserach Institute (LCRI) Conference Hall Maiduguri with facilitators from the Lake Chad Research Institute Maiduguri
Managing Director/CEO, NEDC, Alhaji Mohammed Goni Alkali in his welcome address said: “The NEDC’s concept on the training is that the global climate change has emerged as a challenge faced by every nation in the world. Nigeria’s northeast exemplifies a typical extreme case of the country’s version of climate change, reveling in ecological imbalance and accompanied with devastating consequences”.
” It is evident that the northeast grapples with an unprecedented number of “climate induced migrations” courtesy of the multi-faceted climate change and its palpable effects; ranging from desertification, drought, flooding and the near disappearance of the Lake Chad Basin which all put the region in a dire strait.
“We are seeing the effects of climate change that has exacerbated different conflicts in the North East, from the insurgency to communal conflicts over the years.
“The drying up of the Lake Chad, the southward expansion of the Sahara Desert, floods being experienced across many states, menace of the herdsmen/farmers clashes necessitated by the diminishing availability of forests and grazing lands, are all obvious problems associated with climate change in the region,” Alkali said
One of the resource persons, Hajiya Fatima Mustapha, The Director of Administration with the Lake Chad Research Institute Maiduguri, said the workshop will create awareness on how to use efficient stoves without smokes, to teach women how to adapt to climate change, and environment.
She added that the participants will be extensively trained on how to use the efficient stoves and contributes immensely to climate change mitigation and adaptation including strategies corporate organizations and individuals can adopt.
Fatima assured the women participants that the efficient stoves will be distributed to them for domestic use.
She appreciated the support of the Borno State Government in collaborating with the commission to organize the workshop for women folks in the state.
According to her, “adaptation in climate change means to adopt to changes in climate or weather change , what to do, how to do it and when to adapt to climate change which include individual and corporate attitudes, behaviours and characters on how to reduce or stop certain environmental emission and pollution..
She also talked about climate change mitigation and how countries and governments at different levels can implement strategies to reduce environmental emissions and pollutions which threaten health of people, destroy crops forests, land, sea etc.
She said pollution and emission have great consequences on the greenhouse by way of increasing temperature, precipitation and other things that are harmful to the environment, while highlighting effects of traditional cooking with coal and woods as well as felling of trees for firewood and charcoal.
She highlighted some measures to be adopted in tackling climate change to include – the use of smart energy stoves, climate smart agriculture, energy saving balancer, tackle consumerism, waste management and avoidance of deforestation.
Others she said will include carrying out afforestation, ensure proper conservation of seeds, reduction in the use of generators in houses and business places, encourage sustainability of land forest, among others.
At the end of the two days training workshop, the women were given efficient smart stoves for free and they were encourage to share the knowledge derived from the training to other women.
Some of the women participants Madam Talatu Dibal from Borno State Ministry of Environment, Madam and Maryam Zarma from Jiddari Polo ward of Maiduguri while speaking to newsmen about the workshop expressed gratitude to the commission and state government for organizing such training for them.
While Mrs. Pindar Adamu of Sulummuri Area of Maiduguri, thanked the organizers for giving them the opportunity to benefit from the training, particularly the exposure in saving their lives, health, environment, land and property with the knowledge of climate change and use of efficient stoves.
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