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OPENING ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR ADENIYI OSUNTOGUN, DIRECTOR/CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, FEDEN/LEAD (NIGERIA) AT THE FEDEN WORLD ENVIRONMENT
DAY SYMPOSIUM HELD AT THE AUDITORIUM OF CHIC AFIQUE HOUSE, 3, THORBURN
AVENUE, SABO, YABA, LAGOS ON JUNE 5, 2003
On behalf of the Foundation for
Environmental Development and Education in Nigeria (FEDEN) and the
Leadership for Environment and Development Progamme (LEAD, Nigeria), I
welcome you most heartily to our Year 2003 World Environment Day
Programme.
The global theme for this year’s
World Environment Day is “WATER: Two Billion are Dying for it”
The 21st century has
been dubbed the ‘Century of Water’. By 2025, an estimated 3.5 billion
people will live in areas suffering from serious water stress. That’s
6.5 times the figure for 2000. Today, at least 1.1 billion people
lack access to safe drinking water and 2.5 billion live without
adequate sanitation. Halving the proportion of people unable to
obtain safe drinking water by 2015 was a goal of the UN Millennium
Declaration. At the Johannesburg Summit, increasing the supply of
safe drinking water and access to sanitation was among major issues
raised from the perspective of eradicating poverty. Water resources
are essential to sustaining life on earth and socio-economic
development, but population growth, global economic development and
global and regional environmental deterioration are expected to make
water issues increasingly complex and serious.
These issues command greater
international interest at the just concluded Global Water Forum that
was held in Kyoto, Japan.
For Nigeria, water resources
management is important for achieving sustainable development. It is
for this reason that we have titled our symposium for today as
“Harnessing Nigeria’s Water Resources Towards Water Security: Lesson
from the Mexico Experience.”
The Symposium is part of FEDEN’s
environmental awareness and education activities and a fulfillment of
the United Nation’s General Assembly’s Resolution 2997 of 15th
December 1992 which encourages Governments and Organizations
Worldwide, to undertake annually, on that day, activities reaffirming
their commitment to the preservation and enhancement of the
environment for present and future generations.
The panelists are LEAD Fellows and
Associates, who are Nigerian professionals from various sectors and
discipline who recently undertook study visits to Mexico, where they
had the opportunity to observe and explore the merits and challenges
of managing threatened water resources, the impacts on sustainability
and efforts being made to mitigate negative impacts and working
towards Water Security. They joined other LEAD Fellows and Associates
from B razil, China, India, Japan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Zimbabwe,
South Africa, Senegal, Morocco, and about forty other Countries, as
part of the International training component of the LEAD
Capacity Building
Programme.
This symposium is a great
opportunity for us to share experience and draw attention to lessons
for Nigeria.
For members of LEAD-Nigeria family,
an added advantage for us is the opportunity to meet and share ideas
across cohorts.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
once again, on behalf of FEDEN and LEAD-Nigeria, I welcome you to this
great event and I wish you fruitful deliberation.
Thank you. |
