Experts harp on waste recycling for a Safer, Healthier Environment
The need to keep the environment healthy in order to ensure a healthier and sustainable world resonated at the Dawn Project prize-giving event held in Lagos recently.
Themed ‘Recycle for Sustainability: Making a Difference in Our Climate and Our Lives’, the event was organised by the Dawn Project, an environmental conservation organization dedicated to addressing the consequences of climate change through artistic expression to ensure a cleaner and healthier environment for the benefit of all.
The event saw winners, mostly students, emerge in the different categories of the competition, including poetry, prose, art and fashion – all themed around environmental sustainability. The winners went home with assorted prizes, while consolation prizes were also given out to deserving participants.
Speaking at the event, Prof. Akin Abayomi, Lagos State commissioner for health, commended the initiators of the Dawn Project for creating a platform that addresses environmental issues in the society, noting that the project is in tandem with the “One House Agenda” of the Lagos State Government which speaks to a holistic approach to human health.
The Dawn Project, according to Dr. Pamela Ajayi, director at Bridge Clinic and one of the convener, is focused on arousing Nigerians to “a new consciousness about the environment” by presenting issues of climate change in an interesting way through the creative arts.
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Dr. Ajayi said the project started off with first asking people to interpret a poem titled ‘A Plea’, but over time it has taken a different approach, with this year’s competition involving poetry and prose writing, as well as art and fashion using waste materials.
She decried the rising cases of cancer in the country even among young people, noting that environmental pollution caused by emission from vehicles and power-generating sets was a major concern, as well as plastic waste. She said the time has come to deal with these challenges decisively.
Desmond Majekodunmi, environmental activist and founder, LUFASI Park, said that addressing the climate challenge should be everybody’s business. He urged young people to challenge the elders to address the climate situation that is slowly killing people, saying the future belongs to the youth and they should not relent in asking for what belongs to them.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the event, Majekodunmi described the environment as “our life support system”, saying that destroying it amounted to destroying life itself.
Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, director, Public Affairs, Communication and Sustainability, Coca Cola Nigeria Limited, said that numerous challenges facing the society today arise out of mismanagement of waste products, stressing, however, that these challenges can be mitigated by adopting measures that turn waste into wealth.
Other speakers, including Kris Camponi, head of PR, British High Commission, Lagos; Ben Lewellyn-Jones, British Deputy High Commissioner; Stanley Evans MBE, collaborator, DAWNProject; and Lucy Onoriode-Okeke, founder, Aqua-Pro Life Foundation, sought solutions towards addressing the climate challenges in the country and the world.
SOURCE: The Guardian
