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From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
An NGO, Development Watch Network (DWN), has lamented the degradation of the environment and called for effective regulation of mining activities in Osun State.
A statement by the Executive Director, DWN, Gafar Lameed, made available to our correspondent in Osogbo, Thursday, lamented the pollution of water and land by the miners.
“There is growing environmental pollution of water course and land by mining companies who carry out indiscriminate mining activities without regard for the environment and personal properties of people.
“The management of DWN observed that this case of environmental pollution is not limited to Ilesha. For instance, the Osun River, which serves both utility and tourism functions has been seriously polluted.
“While the report highlights the rising cases of environmental pollution by mining companies, even when they are licensed, it also underscores the need for greater supervision, monitoring as well as quality control in the extractive industry.
“We are concerned that people’s lives and the future of the environment are being endangered as a result of an indiscriminate search for profit.
“The Management of Development Watch Network, therefore, call for ethical extractive activities, increased, therefore, and control of mining activities in Osun State.
“We are not unmindful of a series of legislations, regulations and government agencies tasked with regulating environmentally-sensitive activities and ethical extractive activities.
“Particularly, the recent Stakeholder Consultation on the Validation of Framework for Environment Reporting in the Extractive Industry organized by the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), which aims to enforce environment-friendly extractive activities.
“We hope that this, along with other relevant regulations, policy frameworks and laws, will help in stopping this growing, yet an unacceptable trend. We commend NEITI for developing a Framework k for environmental reporting in Nigeria’s Extractive Industries, and for adopting a stakes consultative approach in the development of the reporting framework.
We call on the Osun State government to do reporting as humanly possible to hold accountable, those mining companies operating in the state and destroying the Osun River and the environment.
“We call for a full investigation of the cases of indiscriminate mining and controlled extractive activities in Osun State. We also call for increased monitoring and supervision of mining activities in Osun State by the state government.
“The management of DWN are ready to work with state government, Ministry of Mines and Steel, Ministry of Environment and other relevant stakeholders to put an end to activities of illegal miners and mining that is going on in the state in the process of ensuring ethical mining that respects the environment and people’s human rights, especially in respects of monitoring and advocacy.
“We welcome all the relevant stakeholder’s declaration of war on illegal miners. We advise the stakeholders not to be limited to illegal miners alone but also legal miners that carry out illegal and unethical mining activities.”
