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By Olajide Idowu
Osun State Government on Monday, instituted action plan against plastic pollution as measures to control plastic waste pollution in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gov. Ademola Adeleke of Osun instituted the action plan in Osogbo, while commemorating the 2023 World Environment Day at the Osun State Ministry of Environment and Sanitation.
The governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Teslim Igbalaye, said the action plan would embrace local and international best practices, alongside an implementation plan with deliverables.
Adeleke directed the Osun Ministry of Environment to prepare the State Action Plan Against Plastic Pollution, and that the plan must be ready within the next three months.
He said the three months time frame was so that the implementation would commence in the last quarter of the year.
He said by the 2024 celebration of World Environment Day, Osun would have achieved milestones in concerted efforts to control plastic pollution.
The governor said the scale of plastic pollution was growing, relentlessly, and that the world was producing twice as much plastic waste as two decades ago.
He said in 2019, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) figures, 353 million tonnes of plastic waste were recorded.
“Eight million tonnes of plastic waste leaks into the ocean every year, and urgent action is needed to tackle this problem.
“Under the ‘business-as-usual’ scenario, the volume of waste entering the environment will increase by three times by 2040.” he said
Adeleke said the threat was now beyond the environment, as the pollution poses increasing health risk onto humans, as monoplastic with harmful toxins are finding their ways into our water and food.
He said Osun, however, support the March 2022 resolution endorsed, by 175 countries at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5), to start negotiations on an international legally binding agreement to eliminate plastic waste and pollution in the environment.
He said to address the plastic pollution and the climate change question, sub-national entities cannot leave the issue to the national governments alone.
He, therefore, called on state governments worldwide to rise up and create plans of action, adding that Osun State is aiming to be a leading sub-national entity within Nigeria in the fight against plastic pollution as much as in the general climate action arena
(NAN)
