ENVIRONMENT Climate change “adaption in Ofante Urgent intervention is needed to reduce the vulnerability of the community and build their resilience to the impacts of climate change. As one of the communities rich in oil palm, economic trees and natural r

rain-harvesting project executed by Nigeria Environmental Study/ Action Team (NEST) under its’ climate change initiative tagged Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP), is pumping clean rain water to villagers in Ofante, this dry season. The first dry season after the project was executed in April promises to send down rain water harvested all through the period of the last rainy season, through outlets constructed at the village square in the sprawling community of Olamaboro Local Government Area of Kogi State, bordering Orokam in Benue and Ezike in Enugu State.

“We are drinking rain water in dry season, and we hope to drink all through the season,” a woman at the village said. She expressed delight with the project which has reduced water stresses suffered previously in the area, thanking NEST for the initiative which came with inbuilt water filtration and purification facilities to cleanse the content of any contamination.

The water project is about reducing the problem of water scarcity caused by climate change, said Sam Ogallah, a climate change and development expert working with NEST.

Work on the project was flagged off on July 30, 2012 and commissioned on April 24, 2014. It was funded by UNDP, AAP and implemented by NEST. It involved the provision of rain water harvesting and storage facilities with in-build water filtration and purification facilities and training of community members on construction and maintenance of such facilities. It also involved training of the community members on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

Seven months after the commissioning, community members are having the benefit of such a project sited in their place. Women are seen daily trooping out with water cans on their heads; but not from contaminated streams which they were familiar with before the coming of NEST.

“Now, we head straight to the taps provided to take water from the overhead tanks which harvest rain during the wet season,” Mama Abigail, a member of Ofante said.

At the commissioning, the Executive Director of NEST, Professor Chinedu Nwajiuba, called on the community to make effective use of the water facilities provided to them. He said the organisation will continue to deliver on its mandate of touching lives of many in rural communities across Nigeria through its propoor development strategies.

An officer of NEST, Sam Ogallah, who is also of the PanAfrican Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), warned that it is not yet over as the community is still facing other developmental and climate change challenges.

Ogallah said the impact of climate change in the community is not only in the area of water stress but also in other aspects such as declining agricultural yield, increase in temperature and unpredictable rainfall pattern that have rendered this naturally endowed agrarian community vulnerable to climate change.

“Urgent intervention is needed to reduce the vulnerability of the community and build their resilience to the impacts of climate change. As one of the communities rich in oil palm, economic trees and natural resources like ironore and large quantity of cement deposit, access to market through construction of good roads to link the community to wider market will boost the economic activities in the area thereby providing alternative livelihood options to climate change adaptation,” Ogallah said.

He recalled similar intervention when relief materials were provided to the community in 2011 when it was hit by rainfall havoc that rendered many homeless while stressing the vulnerability of the community to the adverse impacts of climate change.

He called on the government of Kogi State to reciprocate the good gesture demonstrated by NEST through replicating similar project in the community and other communities in the state and road construction that opens up the community to wider market.

“Ofante community contributes to the micro-economic development of the state,” said Ogallah, who underscored the need for Kogi State government to develop an overarching climate change adaptation strategy and action plan while stressing the urgent need to convene Kogi State Environmental Summit to address the various environmental problems confronting the state.

The traditional ruler of Ofante, Chief Oguche Ekpa, the home branch Chairman, Ofante Self Help Association (OSHA), Mr. James Oguche and the spokesperson of the community, Barrister Dickson Itodo, all thanked NEST for coming to the aid of the community and promised to make effective use of the facilities in the community for the benefit of the people.

NEST worked on several projects across the country, including Building Nigeria’s Response to Climate Change (BNRCC), a pilot project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and managed and implemented by a consortium of CUSO-VSO and Marbek Resource Consultants.

BNRCC worked to build informed responses to climate change in Nigeria by enhancing capacity at the community, state and national levels to implement effective adaptation strategies, policies and actions.

NEST partnered with the Department of Climate Change of the Federal Ministry of Environment to develop NASPACCN, a policy document which Nigeria took to COP17, in Durban, South Africa, in 2011.

The document seeks, among other issues, the allocation of resources beyond the benchmark of a developing country like Nigeria, to build response to climate change. “The cost of not taking any action is significantly higher”, the document says. The document recommends comprehensive policies, programmes and measures to reduce the risk from, and build resilience to climate-related hazards.

The document says climate change is already having an impact in Nigeria, citing reports from relevant authorities, particularly the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) showing rising cases of floods, drought induced famine and other climate-related disasters. The document is therefore, recommending an action plan that will “mean doing some things differently, and allocating resources differently.”

Further, future climate scenarios developed at NEST under her Building Nigeria’s Response to Climate Change (BNRCC), a just completed 5-year programme, indicates enormous challenges which states should begin to address in an informed manner. The BNRCC project covered a wide dimension of issues with funds from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The BNRCC covered 25 states and involved research, communitybased pilot projects, youth and communication activities, as well as policy dimensions.