By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Four Ogoniland communities in Rivers State have converged on Thursday to get training on environmental monitoring and advocacy.
The four communities which are located in Gokana Local Government Area are Goi, Kpor, Mogho and K-Dere communities.
The training which was organised by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) is geared towards continuing the fight against environmental pollution communities, which involved a learning and sharing session on the usefulness of community monitoring, organizing and advocacy.
HOMEF’s Stephen Oduware who spoke on Monitoring, Reporting, Organizing and Advocacy, explained the need for indigenes of communities to be fully involved into activities that happen in their environment.
Oduware also noted that the people are the main instrument for monitoring of their environment and they can do that by reporting to relevant stakeholders, documenting the problem, engaging into media relations and among others.
In training them on advocacy, he urged them to join the FishNet Alliance, which will help fishermen to promote their interest and further strengthen solidarity in their environment.
Earlier speaking, the leader of the delegation of the communities, Gberesuu Tonbari, nformed the indigenes on the effects of pollution in Ogoniland.
He said fishing and agriculture have been greatly affected by the activities of gas flaring and oil spill in the land, adding that the communities are suffering from flooding, deforestation and other environmental issues.
He further charged the communities to educate themselves especially women and children, contribute less to the pollution of their environment and hold multinational companies accountable for environmental hazards.
The Executive Director of HOMEF, Rev. Nnimmo Bassey in his welcome address, urged the communities to use the training, which covers different subjects like fishing, farming and mining, as an opportunity to improve on their environment.
He also noted that so far, HOMEF has taken the training to eleven (11) states in Nigeria, adding that other African countries like Senegal, Togo, Ghana, Congo and South Africa have benefitted from this training.
Speaking to one of the participants, Julia Gaage, a 62-year old-farmer from K-Dere, he lamented the damages on the land from pollution. “Before now we did not use fertiliser to grow yams but today if you do not add these things you will not have a good yield and there will be nothing to live or feed on.”
He appreciated HOMEF for organising the training, pledging to commit himself into monitoring and advocating for his community.
