Environmental degradation around Jankwano area, Jos.
By Marie-Therese Nanlong
Jos – Plateau State is the home of peace and tourism, but enduring peace has eluded the State in the last 20 years and tourism which ought to bring massive resources to the State’s coffers has been adversely affected by lack of peace.
Besides, successive governments have not seen tourism as a real revenue earner; they neglect the sector as reflected in the poor state of infrastructure, meagre budgetary allocation and non-release of the budgeted fund for meaningful activities.
The Pandam Wildlife Park in Qua’an Pan local government area recently handed over to the federal government has become the haven of criminals; the Jos Wildlife Park in the State capital is an eyesore. Few hungry-looking animals dot the mostly empty cages and criminal elements threaten anyone who dares to ‘invade their territory’ in the name of tourism.
Beautiful waterfalls at Shere hills, Kura Falls, Assop Falls and others are also abandoned.
Apart from the poor state of these tourism sites, poor sanitation especially in the city centres adds to the environmental woes of the State.
Used plastics, used diapers, human and animal feces and other conditions pollute the landscape.
To remedy the situation, an environmentalist, Emmanuel Mabitine and his team at Africa Zero Waste Recycling Partners Initiative, a non-governmental organization has taken steps to rid the environment of used plastic as they envisage the recycling of the products to create employment and put the recycled products to better use.
Floor bricks made from wastes.
Mabitine who spoke with this medium lamented how plastic waste is dumped indiscriminately in the waterways rather than being recycled into floor tiles, building and construction materials; stressing it has been proven that used plastics can be recycled and used as durable materials in road constructions and others.
His words, “We advocate for a cleaner and healthy environment, we participate in community sanitation exercises and create awareness about all sorts of pollution. See how our streets are littered with plastic and other forms of wastes even very close to prominent government institutions.”
“We can make use of these wastes by collecting them, sorting them and segregating them according to their categories and processing them into sustainable building and construction materials like plastic and concrete road slabs for community roads constructions.”
“We can get interlocking pavers, compressed plastic and sand bricks for building, floor tiles for compounds and roads. We can create methane cooking gas as well as charcoal briquettes from waste sawdust and other agricultural wastes. E-wastes like electrical and electronic equipment can be used to extract gold, platinum and others. Waste fabrics and glasses are also useful for recycling.”
“Government at all levels need to identify these things and work with experts to get things done properly. By doing so, our environment would be free from the enormous pollution which it is subjected to and the resultant effects which manifest in human health.”
“We are looking forward to having these plastic and sand kerbs made from plastic wastes- adorn our main and community Roads in the nearest future.”
