FCT Minister flags off Inclusive Environmental Sanitation in Area Councils
By Muhammad Abdullahi
Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory Administration has disclosed that measures have been put in place for the immediate take off of the Special Agro-industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) in livestock production.
Specifically, the administration has made provisions in the 2021 budget to the tune of N5 billion as counterpart funds for the actualization of the project in the nation’s capital
Chairman, Project Implementation Committee, Prof. Muhammad Usman, who made this disclosure during a stakeholder engagements of AfDB/IFAD-SAPZ appraisal mission to FCT, also revealed that the FCT Administration has developed a strategic implementation plan for the next 3 years of this administration.
Usman, who described the project as a game changer in project development in the Federal Capital Territory, however, noted that the SAPZ was one of the strategies to deliver on Mr. President’s plan to create jobs for the youth and to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next nine years.
Speaking further on the benefits of the project, Usman stated that the SAPZ when fully established would improve modernise livestock productivity for national food nutrition security by making available quality and price competitive beef/dairy products for local and export markets, stressing that the project would resettle pastoralists, decongest the FCT of roaming cattle and mitigate farmer/herder conflicts.
According to him, “The SAPZ is essentially one of our strategies to deliver on Mr. President’s plan to create jobs for the youth and to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty over the next nine years. We plan to complement this with the production in the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) of the federal government while incentivising as many mult-national corporations with interest in livestock and dairy production.
“Consequently, we have constituted a multi-sectoral, inter-agency and multi-disciplinary SAPZ project development team for FCTA that has worked through the COVID-19 lockdown period, to prepare draft project implementation checklists, design layouts, and infrastructure provision cost estimates”.
He noted that the administration has aligned with the federal government policies and programmes on the ease of doing business, even as he stressed that the administration has commenced stakeholders engagement to achieve top 3 subnational ranking at the end of 2021.
In her presentation, Monde Nyambe, the Task Team Lead of Africa Development Bank (AfDB), said the establishment of SAPZ was one of the plans by the bank to achieve five cardinal objectives to include power and light up Africa, feed Africa, industrialise Africa, integrate Africa and improve quality of life of Africans by using the small holder farmers.
She, however, expressed the commitment of the bank for the actualization of the project. In another development:
As part of measures to increase public awareness on sound environmental practices in all communities across the six area councils and to inculcate in residents, the habit of maintaining clean and hygienic environments in the satellite towns, FCT Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, has flagged off inclusive sensitization on environmental sanitation.
Performing the exercise in Kwali area council of the territory,
Aliyu noted that the FCT Administration is required to “implement higher standards of environmental sanitation and orderliness” as its 4th Performance Deliverable under the Next Level Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, and to achieve this, all hands must be on deck, and everyone has to take responsibility for her/his actions.
She said:
“as we continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important that communities take action to prevent further transmission, reduce the impacts of the outbreak,and support control measures. Proper waste management and good hygiene practices are critical to enhancing public health and are indispensable for optimal economic productivity.
“It is for this reason that the FCT Administration, through the Satellite Towns Development Department (STDD), initiated the “Inclusive Sensitisation On Environmental Sanitation” in all communities in the FCT, to ensure that everyone gets involved in taking actions to guarantee a healthy environment”.
While noting that most of the diseases affecting people are as a result of poor environmental hygiene practices, the effect of which has been an increase in morbidity and mortality rates in children under five, Aliyu assured that the FCT Administration shall continue to enforce existing policies and guidelines on issues related to acceptable waste management practices.
The minister also affirmed that indiscriminate disposal of wastes has an impact not only on public health, but also on human dignity and personal safety, noting that the scheme launched would greatly improve the health conditions of residents of the FCT and take a step closer to achieving one of the cardinal objectives of the Administration while advancing the cause of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) attainment.
The FCT Permanent Secretary, Mr. Olusola Adesola, stated that the World Bank’s reports on the economic impact of poor sanitation across communities in Nigeria, estimated that Nigeria losses a whooping N455billion annually, representing 1.3 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Adesola, who was represented at the occasion by the Acting Secretary Area Council Services Secretariat, Mrs. Omolola Olanipekun, said the event was a clear demonstration and very pungent commitment by the FCT Administration towards improving environmental sanitation and good hygiene across all communities of the six area councils.
He said: “Poor sanitation has become a major public health concern with unprecedented attendant adverse impacts on all of us. It is common knowledge that diseases such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery, diarrhea are linked to poor sanitary conditions. This goes to show that the state of sanitation of a particular community largely determines the health status and wellbeing of its residents”.
Meanwhile, the Director, Environmental Services, Satellite Town Development Department (STDD), Mr Olusegun Olusa, in his overview of the scheme said the FCT master plan made provision for development of sanitary/engineered landfills at Gosa in Abuja Municipal Area Council and Guabe in Kuje Area Council but regretted that both lands have been seriously encumbered.
He, however, assured that,
“The FCDA is working on the design of an engineered landfill to be situated at 350 hectares currently being salvaged from 500 hectares originally provided for in the master plan at Gosa. When developed it will serve as final treatment site for waste from FCC and the Area Council.”