...As environmentalist calls for enforcementof convention, recommendations

An Environmentalist, Professor Lanre Fagbohun, recently urged the Federal Government to enforce the International Maritime Organisation Convention (IMOC), so as to protect water bodies from further pollution.Fagbohun told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, that government should urgently evolve a system of effectively monitoring of industrial and human activities on the water bodies, to reduce pollution and depletion of aquatic life.The way people abuse our water bodies today negates the internationally accepted and domesticated treaties and conventions on protection of water resources in this country.We need to act fast to save our water bodies and the aquatic life from further contamination and destruction, he said.Fagbohun, who is the Executive Director of Environmental Law Research Institute (ELRI), blamed the continued discharge of effluents and other pollutants into the water bodies on poor monitoring system.According to him, if the situation remains unchecked, it  would have adverse effect on the nations food chain.He noted that some fish species were gradually going into extinction in the countrys water bodies.He stated that whenever an effluent was discharged into water bodies, the survival of fishes became threatened and sometime results in the death of a sizeable number of other aquatic resources.The Professor of Environmental Law explained that the consumption of such contaminated fishes could also affect the health of consumers.He  added that the situation had also contributed to the destruction of the nations mangrove swamp forest resources.We need to know that apart from other uses, our water bodies are sources of fresh protein-giving food and must, therefore, be protected from any form of pollution,he said.It is therefore imperative and urgent that government and other stakeholders close ranks and come up with an enforcement blueprint that would ensure sustainable protection and use of water resources, he said.
Click here to read full news..