World Environment Day: Bauchi school children rise against deforestation, plants trees
By Rauf Oyewole, Bauchi
School children in Bauchi State are championing the campaign against deforestation, climate change and pollution and are creating forest gardens in their various schools and communities. Celebrating this year’s World Environment Day, school administrators in Bauchi in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and relevant agencies of government took tree planting campaigns to various schools in Bauchi local councils.
The State being one of the worst hit in environmental degradation is working with UNICEF to inculcate the habit of clean and green environment in the school children.
Speaking in Fawari Primary and Secondary Schools, Misau in Misau local council, the Director General of the Bauchi State Environmental Protection Agency, (BASEPA), Dr. Ibrahim Kabir, said that it has become necessary for schools to mandate school children to learn environmental protection.
He said that the habit of waste management, pollution and recycling is necessary in school to save the lives of the next generation.
Meanwhile, according to UNICEF, currently, up to 40 percent of the world’s land is degraded, impacting around 3.2 billion people globally due to desertification.
It said this year, World Environment Day is being hosted by The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a focus on the theme: “Our Land, Our Future. We are #GenerationRestoration.”
It said that its focus is on tree plantation and raising awareness about the detrimental effects of deforestation. By engaging residents, schools, and organisations, we can make a positive impact on our environment.
Also speaking, the General Manager, Bauchi State Rural Water Sanitation, Supply Agency (RUWASSA), Adamu Sabo Dass, said that “toilets in households especially in flood-prone areas stand the risk of being destroyed by flood waters, we have got to think of local solutions to resist climatic factors by providing climate resilience water and sanitation facilities.”
“It is a time to look inward to achieve this target, this can also be achieved when individual households identify how climatic conditions are affecting them and use local solutions to protect themselves.”
He urged the children and community leaders to keep their environment clean and green.
The school children planted trees at the various gardens created in some schools in Misau and Azare communities.
