Nasarawa State Government has developed a sustainable action plan towards mitigating the impacts of climate change and other environmental challenges in the state.
Mohammed Yahaya Wada, the managing director of the State Urban Development Board (NUDB), stated this while inaugurating the planting of 1500 trees at the Isa Mustapha Agwa Polytechnic in Lafia.
The board’s MD said that the state, like every other part of the country, was facing environmental challenges due to consistent climate change, characterised by increase in the temperature level, variable rainfall, flooding and droughts.
Wada, who was represented by the Head of Department, Town Planning of the baord, Suleiman Alkasim, added that, the state government was working on a template to ensure that MDAs, organisations and institutions of learning make tree planting a policy.
“Considering the importance of trees to human existence, the state government is working on a template to mandate it organisations, agencies and institutions of learning to make tree planting as a policy in their programme of action,” he said.
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Justina Kotso, the Rector of the Polytechnic was optimistic that the inauguration of the project to plant 1,500 trees would, in no small measure mitigate impacts of climate change and other environmental challenges in the institution.
According to the Rector, the project was a calculated approach to secure the school’s environment from degradation.
She explained that, each staff of the polytechnic had been tasked to plant and nurture a tree, saying, the 1,500 trees are to be planted during the first phase of the project before the rainfall sets in fully.
“Since the establishment of the polytechnic over 20 years ago, no physical plan was put in place to secure the school, that has exposed it to environmental hazards such as erosion, flooding and desertification,” she said.
The programme which is tagged: ‘Green IMAP 2022 Tree Planting Project,’ was “a deliberate approach to salvage and secure the school from environmental degradation by massive planting of trees,” she further said.
