Creating Awareness on Need to Preserve Rivers from Pollution

The importance of rivers as a source of water to mankind cannot be overemphasised. Little wonder workers of Benin-Owina River Basin recently trooped out to create awareness on the need to preserve the rivers from pollution. Adibe Emenyonu, who was at the event, captured the essence surrounding the celebration

World Rivers Day is one of the largest environmental celebrations on the planet earth. It is celebrated every fourth Sunday of the year. This year’s celebration was however marked on September 27, with a detailed message attached to it.

Therefore, given the importance of rivers to human existence and development, Nigeria joined numerous other countries to celebrate the day in various locations nationwide.

The celebration, which is a maiden edition in Nigeria, was organised by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources through the Department of River Basin Operations and Inspectorate.

The World Rivers Day is a day set aside by the United Nations to celebrate the world’s waterways or river systems in order to highlight the many value of rivers and to increase public awareness around them, with the main objective tailored on improved stewardship of all rivers around the world.

The theme for this year’s celebration is “Water Ways in our Communities” in recognition of the incredible natural, cultural and recreational values of rivers and streams, as well as the extent to which they add to quality of life.

The day, according to the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, has become one of the largest environmental celebrations on the planet earth. He said this year’s celebrations was marked by about 100th countries with the intention to draw attention to the world’s rivers that are in degraded states and facing increasing pressures associated with pollution, industrial development, urbanisation and climate change mostly due to human activities.

Also in the words of the founder and Chair of World Rivers Day, Mark Angelo, “The importance of clean fresh water has been essential to the fight against COVID-19, so the World Rivers Day is a timely opportunity for millions of people around the world to come together to commemorate the importance of healthy waters and vibrant waterways.”

In Nigeria therefore, the 2021 World Rivers Day was celebrated simultaneously at the federal and state levels with special focus on creating public awareness on the importance of rivers, river clean-ups, river restoration, protection and conservation.

In Edo State, the ceremony was marked by the Benin-Owina River Basin Development Authority (BORBDA). To ensure the essence of the celebration is captured, the Ikpoba River in Benin City, capital of the state was chosen as the site of event.

Besides, the event was marked in all the catchment areas within the jurisdiction of BORBDA namely Delta North, Ekiti and Ondo States.

In Edo, which happened to be the headquarters, the ceremony featured a motorcade and public awareness campaign including distribution of fliers to draw public attention to the importance of rivers as a source of clean water that should not be polluted in any form.

Moreover, the ceremony also had workers of the river basin, doing manual cleaning including the use of bulldozer and trucks to excavate dirt along the bank of Ikpoba river, as well as the symbolic planting of trees to create a green belt within the area.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Managing Director, Benin-Owena River Basin Development Authority, Mr. Daily Ahmed, advocated for safer preservation of waterways in the country.

Ahmed, an engineer by profession, said human activities on the rivers have not only decreased economy value of river, but also poses danger to human existence.
He bemoaned the indiscriminate dumping of refuse and human waste on the rivers, stressing that people must endeavour to keep the rivers clean at all time.

The BORBDA boss, who emphasised that the agency would ensure regular cleaning of rivers in its catchment area in order to improve their economy value, said “It is imperative to make our rivers clean because it is part of our existence. You can see the tons of refuse that was pulled out of Ikpoba river at just one spot, this shows the harm we do to ourselves.

“Perhaps we need to know that throwing all this into the rivers endanger our common existence, increases cost of treatment of the water from the rivers. We must endeavour to keep our rivers clean.

“As part of our effort to sustain the cleaning of the rivers, we will continue to carry out advocacy and collaborate with the communities by making them understand the importance of the rivers,” he stated.

In addition, there was a lecture by an Environmentalist, Dr. Kingsley Egun titled: “Threat to Rivers in Benin-Owina River Basin Development Authority’s Catchment Areas and Its Implications”.

Dr. Egun in the course of his lecture, said studies carried out on various section of the rivers have raised concern about high volume of pollutants deposited in the river which has affected the water quality and the aquatic biota of the river.

According to him, “the study further showed that this has impacted negatively on the nutritional status of fishes caught in the river and also predisposes the consumers to various health risk.

“The threat to our community waterways have also impacted negatively on the cultural values and the religious economy of the indigenous people.”