Climate Change: Benue Stakeholders Meet To Validate Draft Policy

Benue State government has urged stakeholders to develop and implement adaptive strategies that could help the state in Climate Change Adaptation Policy that will build resilience and promote sustainable practices across all sectors.

The Commissioner for Water Resources, Environment and Climate Change, Odoh Ugwu, made the call during the meeting of Stakeholders’ Review and Validation of Benue Climate Change draft policy document in Makurdi, the state capital.

He advised that key focus should be given to environmental protection and water resource management.

“Under environmental protection, our ecosystems are under threat. We must actively combat pollution, habitat destruction, and deforestation through community engagement, education, and policy enforcement and for Water Resource Management water is life and we must prioritise sustainable water management for citizens to have access to clean and safe water,” he said.

The meeting, which was organised by the Benue State Government in conjunction with the Women Environmental Programme (WEP) was to review and validate the Climate Change Policy that will be approved for use in the state to help in tackle issues associated with Climate Change, has in attendance the global president and founder of WEP, Dr Priscilla Achakpa.

In their remarks, Dr Achakpa and the representative of Christian Aid Nigeria, Bamidele Emmanuel both urged stakeholders to make meaningful contributions which will be adopted and implemented even as they commended the Benue State Government, stakeholders, and all the partners for their collaborative efforts on how to tackle Climate Change in Benue which they said is one of the states with the worst history of Climate Change impact.

The commissioner of Water Resources lamented that, “the issue of Climate change is no longer a distant threat, it is a present and pressing reality. We are witnessing its devastating impacts across the globe, and Benue State is not exempted from it, our communities face climate-induced challenges, including, increased frequency and intensity of floods, heat waves and erratic rainfall patterns, loss of biodiversity among others.

“The negative Impacts of Climate Change on agriculture and food security, displacement of communities and loss of livelihoods cannot be overemphasized, therefore the contributions of each stakeholder will not be taken for granted and I sincerely appreciate your dedication to this process, I also believe your inputs during this review and validation exercise will help in coming up with a more clean policy for domestication.”

Ugwu who also decried the negative impact of climate change in all spheres of life said, given the urgency and magnitude of these challenges, the development of a robust and comprehensive Climate Change Policy is not just important but very imperative.