 The International Federation of Environmental Health, IFI, has set aside 26th of September to raise awareness on the crucial state of the environment and how well it must be protected. This year's theme of the World Environmental Health Day centered on strengthening the environmental health system for the implementation of sustainable development goals are corresponding to Manuel or Lubabukun had a conversation with an environmental expert earlier in this report. The implementation of the sustainable development goals in Nigeria are globally caught across many sectors and these goals are expected to be achieved by the year 2030. Coming down to Nigeria in relation to our environment, statistics and show that the country is ranked 8th among the largest producers of hazardous films. Yes, the Niger Delta region has suffered pollution from oil and gas producers and have left with contaminated water and air. The SDG framework as a total of 17 goals, 169 targets and 244 indicators of which Night Tree are environment-related which covers natural resource management, climate change, water-related issues, marine issues, biodiversity and ecosystems among others. When it comes to the pollution like air pollution, water pollution, there's a lot to be done and we are already seeing the repercussion. If we look at the now with a little rain in Lagos, in other parts of Nigeria they're flooding and it becomes a disaster. And it is because we're not planning our air, we have built houses on our flood plains. We have blocked the flood plains. The areas where flowing water is supposed to end up, now we have structures there. That's a huge problem. On 25th September, Lagos State launched the forced urban car 3-day to tackle pollution and eat and for effect. It wasn't a surprise to see a lot of regular movement on the set day. I can tell you, I think these car 3-day in Lagos started doing the Babachaniradi Partial Act and led administration. And I think then they were followed to a large extent people were obeying and then we had a retraction during the government that succeeded him. And I think this new administration is bringing him back gradually and yeah, like you said people seems not to obey it or they don't understand it. But the challenge now is are people aware? We need to do more awareness. We need to build more awareness. We need to do more advocacy. It's not just that day alone that you just rush out and tell people to stay to do a car 3-day. People need to be aware. They should have known about it weeks, days ahead so they can arrange and plan their movement. Laying down policies and seeing them implemented looks to be our equivalent task for the government as of all the news to achieve in DSDGs. And joining us live, live rather is Solomon Adefolu, a climate change program leader for Nigerian Conservation Foundation NCF. A very good evening to you Mr. Adefolu. Thank you so much. Good evening and thanks for having me. That's right. Thank you for joining us. Now there has been so much clamour for a healthy environment but to many just as you watched in that report to many who are not experts like you such clamour may fall on deaf ears and of course one would want to ask what exactly is the significance of the world environmental health day? The environmental health day as it is celebrated around the world is to raise awareness about the value that the environment provides and also about the health of the environment. We just live in the environment and we do not recognize that the environment plays a role in our elderly living and in helping us achieve a better well-being. So this environmental health day is set aside by the global body to represent a day that you as an individual, me as an individual we recognize the value the environment play in our well-being and also for us to take care of the environment. What exactly then is the correlation between the implementation of the 17 SDGs as a sustainable development goals and the environment? What's the correlation? So in terms of the sustainable development goal which is something that a goal a global goal which is always referred to a global goal that was signed in 2015 and as a target year of 2030 and with 17 goals which we all know in terms of implementing this goal and achieving this goal we really need the environment. The environment plays a lot of important role in ensuring the achievement of this goal. Let's take for instance clean air and sanitation which is one of the goals of sustainable development goal. If we want to achieve a cleaner air and a better sanitation around the world we must be able to reduce asadios and pollutant air that are entering into our environment. We also must be able to take responsibility to do a proper waste management in order to ensure an hygiene and a safe healthy living for people and that is the only way the sustainable development goal can be achieved and there are a couple of other goals also which are really related to environmental health the climate action the live below water live above water all of these have a role to play in ensuring that they are achieved with the support of making sure that the environment remain healthy and remain and perform its role in bringing to reality these goals. Now going back to the reports we just watched and looking at the policies that are written down and trying to juxtapose them with the implementation of these policies it looks exactly like an like an equivalent task and of course one wants to ask having these policies especially in controlling what the environment can take and keeping the environment healthy we'll go back to the days of the war against in discipline where it was very very you know it was very very strict and one could see back in those days that it was working such a policy was working policy after policy have come on but we still see people throw sashes or water out from their windows their car windows we see people dump stuff in drainages even at the beach the beach is no longer as beautiful as it used to be so what can be done to realize you know a healthy environment with all of the policies you know we all know thank you very much for that question we all know that Nigeria has a whole lot of policy in place environmental policy and there is very good at sign at developing policy and signing and ratifying conventions but the our challenge is about implementation of these policies and and and convention and really what is in implementation implementation is about operationalizing this policy and enforcing the laws the laws are there the laws are you just mentioned for instance people throwing such a water on the streets and all of that there are laws there are sanitation's law there are environmental law in Lagos who is enforcing this law do we have the capacity the institutional capacity to be able to enforce this law government institutions responsible for this law are they trained in a way to ensure that this law become enforced are they also supported to be able to carry out their activity these are the real questions we need to ask ourselves there are capacity gaps among relevant institutions for enforcement which needs to be built there are operational and the technical supports that are needed for these institutions to be able to carry out their function of enforcing laws and implementing policies but we are really facing a big gap that we all need to be able to close and if we cannot close this gap we may not be able to realize the implementation of these policies how then can this not be cracked you know to ensure that you know a day like this you know we could call for celebration draw out the drums you know roll out the drums and dance to celebrating a healthy environment in Nigeria well a day like this is always something that is very good to remind all of us and also not only the institutions and stakeholders and the state actors but to even remind me and you about the need for us to take care of the environment because the reason being that if we don't take care of the environment the environment has a way of taking care of itself and we are going to be at the loss as individual and as people so we cannot rule out days like this in order to reinforce the need to take care of the environment however it should be a daily activity that should be entrenched in the operations of organizations and institutions that are responsible to deliver a very safe and secure environment and healthy environment that we are and all states at at states level has these institutions even at federal level has these institutions that are responsible for this we all just need to play our role even in our houses we shouldn't leave it to government alone we should also play our role if we need the the the head to not to be polluted let's plant some trees let's ensure that we have trees that are reducing the carbon dioxide that we release into the atmosphere that are that is polluting the atmosphere and have some fresh air those are the roles that we as individual can play we also as individual can always ensure that we sort out our waste when we sort these waste these waste does not end up in in in landfills they are recycled and they are made use of by some other people who are at the at the ladder of at the social ladder so it is important that all hands must be on deck not only government but as individual as organization as businesses we have a role to play thank you very much Mr definitely for your time tonight we'll reach out to you again do have a wonderful night rest then hello hope you enjoyed the news please do subscribe to our youtube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates