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"id": 179808,
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"speaker_name": "Dr. Otichilo",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Motion. I have a number of comments to make on this Motion, as I support it. The environment forms the basic fabric for human existence. Environment creates the space which we inhabit. So, environment is a very important component to human life. Unless we take care of the environment, we face a very serious danger of destroying human life. It is the environment that creates all the life supporting systems. Unless people know that we are actually destroying ourselves every second in the name of development and getting food, we face a very serious danger, and the earth is in a serious danger of extinction. It is important that we take the matter of environment very seriously. It is the human beings that are causing all the problems and imbalance in the environment. Our own activities are creating all the problems that we are experiencing today. Land degradation is an issue that is very prominent in this country. We see soils that go to the Indian Ocean. Look at Lake Victoria. All the soil and fertilisers that we use go to Lake Victoria. That is why Lake Victoria is becoming a big sewage, and over time, it will dry like many other lakes in the world which have dried up due to human activities. The issue of land degradation is a major one. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, water is very paramount to human existence, but today, as you have heard from hon. Members, most of our water resources have declined or shrunk. When I was a child in Emuhaya, there were very many rivers and we could not cross them. In fact, people used to drown during wet seasons. Today, even a child of five years can cross the rivers. So, water is increasingly becoming a major resource that is declining at a very fast rate. As we talk today, water is even more costly than petrol. You can see what it means. As we talk now, water is more expensive than petrol, and even meat. Unless we address the issue of climate change, we are headed for disaster. We have noticed an increase in droughts in dry areas. We have also noticed an increase in floods in highland areas. As we speak now, there are floods all over. One of the hon. Members has sought a Ministerial Statement over the issue. All that is as a result of climate change. So, it is important that we address the issue of climate change. I want to say that it is us who have failed. We have enough laws to address the conservation of the environment. I am worried that we will end up creating very many laws that nobody will remember which is which. We have the agricultural Acts, which take care of how to use and conserve our land, how to prevent soil erosion and other issues to do with land management. We are not taking care of it. We are completely flouting these laws. We have the Water Act, which specifies how we should conserve water, water bodies and how we should not cultivate land near rivers, but we are not implementing all these laws. We have the Forest Act, 2000, which addresses all the issues to do with climate change, but we are doing nothing about it. We even have the Wildlife Act and although it is old and needs to be amended, still takes care of the environment. To crown it all, we have the Environmental Management November 12, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3399 Control Authority (EMCA) Act which was passed here in 1999. The EMCA Act, which created the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), addresses the issue of climate change in detail. NEMA was created to co-ordinate all the environmental issues and management in this country. So, the coordination arm in this country is NEMA. I think NEMA needs to be strengthened. It needs to be aggressive. It has one of the most important Acts in this country which has overriding powers, but I think people in NEMA are sleeping. NEMA must work. Afterall, the powers of coordination were given to NEMA, but we do not see a lot happening. We do not see a lot of punishment being meted out upon the people flouting the law as stipulated in all these Acts. We need to implement what we have already passed in this country. Unless we do that, we are going to create one law after another one and it shall all be in vain. We will finally destroy our country and the globe in general. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to support this Motion and urge the Minister to enforce the already existing laws. We can then have this proposed law of Climate Change and Greenhouse Emissions Reduction in place to supplement those laws. This is because climate change has become a global issue and we must address it. Every thing we talk of will come to a halt unless we deal with the issue of climate change. I beg to support."
}