A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) on pollution in major cities of the world has revealed that Lagos state lost $2.1 billion due to the adverse effect of pollution, Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu said.
Onu made the disclosure on Friday in Abuja when he inaugurated the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Pollution Control in Nigeria.
He said the WHO report emphasized that women and children have lost their lives due to the menace of pollution.
According to a statement signed by the Director of Press in the ministry, AbdulGaniyu Aminu, the minister charged the committee to find relevant solutions to help mitigate this challenge as pollution could disrupt socio-economic activities. The committee comprises of directorate level staff of the concerned Ministries and has two weeks to come up with their report.
Similarly, the ministry also initiated a Plant Species Restoration Project across the 774 LGAs in the country to conserve rare plants for medicinal use in the future. Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mohammed Abdullahi disclosed this in his opening remarks at the webinar on Science Advice for the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration organized by the UNESCO regional office in Abuja.
Nigeria, according to him, is endowed with enormous biological resources that can ensure sustainable development and a healthy ecosystem, adding that they’re working tirelessly to ensure much value is added to innovative programmes in the development of indigenous bio-resources using appropriate technologies. He noted the National Centre for Genetic Engineering (NCGE) of the ministry is also at the forefront of conserving the abundant plant generic resources of Nigeria.
Culled from The Guardian
