How Do You Dispose Waste in Your Locality?

Waste dumped on a tarred road.

I don't know how you feel when you see things like this on a major road. Some feel indifferent, others feel disgust, it all depends on our upbringing.

When we make plans for our homes, we think of furnitures, electronics, power, water, security and the likes. How about waste disposal?

We generate a lot of waste on a weekly basis and this needs to be taken care of. Unfortunately, we seldom pay attention to this. 

For some of us, we just look for a space close to our houses and keep piling the waste only to burn it occasionally and hope the wind comes to carry them away.

Some pile up wastes in buckets and sacks and wait for the rains to dump them in drainages and runways during the rainy season. During the dry season, they burn what can be burnt and look for an open dumpsite to make their contribution for the rest.

This for one is harmful to our health. A dumpsite is a breeding ground for every conceivable disease which can be channeled into water bodies during rainfall and can also be carried in the wind and animal vectors such as flies, rodents, dogs, pigs and even man.

Dumpsites are also not goog to be seen where people live or work or trade. They pollute and make the environment dirty. Worst of all is having such on our highways of which they even contribute to building traffic!

As an individual, you need not be told the right thing to do. Play your part and handle your waste properly. Get heavy duty waste bags to handle your wastes and only dump them in approved locations. 

Making our environment clean and healthy is not something we ought to be talked into but should be how we live our lives.

Having wastes tied up in heavy duty bags makes it easier for relevant agencies to pick up for appropriate disposal and limits chances of disease spread.

Let's limit the spread of diseases, let's limit our hospital bills, let's make our communities habitable.

What You Can Do To Help Our Planet

Photo Credit: The Guardian

You must have in some point noticed the increasing heat intensity of the sun, rise in floods and sea levels, a general shift in climatic conditions over the years. What you have noticed or will soon notice is as a result of a phenomenon referred to as global warming.

Global warming is as a result of the excessive collection of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that blankets or prevents the reflection of part of the sun's rays back into space, thus trapping more heat that warms up the earth's surface.

These greenhouse gases which are chiefly sourced from oxides of carbon and nitrogen are produced from the combustion of fossil fuels. That is to say every generator, bike, stove, vehicle, aircraft, ship, etc. that are powered with petrol, kerosene, diesel and the likes contribute to this problem.

The major 'cleaners' of these greenhouse gases are plants. Unfortunately, we cut down these trees and shrubs and deplete our forest reserves thus making the ugly situation worse.

This problem is going to get worse if we continue to do what we are currently doing. Our folks who live in arctic regions literally cannot survive without heating systems. We here in temperate regions - with the increasing rate of global warming - may not be able to survive without having cooling systems. Imagine your children getting dehydrated and burnt by simply attempting to play outside the house, imagine the cost of cooling a house with ambient temperature of 50°C! That's where we are currently headed.

The entire world is aware of this threat and several countries are already developing policies to combat this ugly trend, part of which includes afforestation, tree planting campaigns, switch to cleaner renewable source of energy, ban on the use of fossil fuel cars, amongst others.

Individuals are encouraged to join this movement by not only complying to government policies, but also by planting trees and gardens as well as cutting down their energy consumption. Before purchasing any appliance, be sure to go for the energy efficient ones as they consume less power. Switch off appliances when not in use, disconnect wall sockets when not in use, use LED bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs, avoid burning of refuse, talk to that neighbour that consistently violates all these and most importantly get educated on how to live smart and protect the ecosystem.

You can visit Green homes to gain a basic understanding of how to contribute to solving this global problem by making some few adjustments in your home. If you don't own a home yet, then it's even best for you to first learn about this. You don't want to spend money in erecting a building and later wish to have done it better and smarter.

We are the first generation to feel the effect of climatic change and the last generation to do something about it. Do something today to create a safer earth for the future generation.

Government and UNDP to implement USD 3.3m project for promoting environmentally friendly and energy efficient technology

                   Monowar Ahmed, Secretary, Economic Relations Divisions and Kyoko Yokosuka, Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP. Bangladesh signed the project agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.     Photo): UNDP

The Government of Bangladesh and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed an agreement on 05 May at the Economic Relations Division to implement a US$ 3.3 million grant approved by the Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund for making environment friendly and energy efficient refrigerators at Walton Hi Tech Industries Ltd.

Under this initiative, UNDP, with assistance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, will provide technical support and necessary equipment to Walton Hi-tech Industries Ltd. to produce and promote environmentally friendly and energy efficient refrigerators. As a partner of this project Walton is also contributing the same amount of resources to implement it.

High global warming refrigerant, HFC-134a will be replaced by... Go to full story 

A Critical Step To Reduce Climate Change

The effects of climate change is already telling on our generation. We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change, and we are the last generation that can do something about it.

Wind and solar power generation is expanding around the globe at record rates, allowing more people to get their electricity from clean, renewable sources than ever before. This is great news.

And here’s better news: We can do even more. By investing in energy innovations, we can build on the progress we’ve made deploying current technology like renewables, which will help accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to a future of reliable and affordable carbon-free electricity.

Read more here

Global Warming is Gradually Getting Us All Killed

You must have in some point noticed the increasing heat intensity of the sun, rise in floods and sea levels; a general shift in climatic conditions over the years. What you have noticed or will soon notice is as a result of a phenomenon referred to as global warming.

Global warming is as a result of the excessive collection of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that blankets or prevents the reflection of part of the sun’s rays back into space, thus trapping more heat that warms up the earth’s surface. 

These greenhouse gases which are chiefly sourced from oxides of carbon and nitrogen are produced from the combustion of fossil fuels. That is to say every generator, bike, stove, vehicle, aircraft, ship, etc. that are powered with petrol, diesel, kerosene and the likes contribute to this problem.

The major ‘cleaners’ of these greenhouse gases (CO₂) are plants. Unfortunately,
we cut down these trees and shrubs and deplete our forest reserves thus making the ugly situation worse.

We should all be aware that this problem is going to get worse if we continue to do what we are currently doing. Our folks who live in arctic regions literally cannot survive without a heating system. We here in temperate regions - with the increasing rate of global warming - may not be able to survive without having cooling systems. Imagine your children getting dehydrated and burnt by simply attempting to play outside the house, imagine the cost of cooling such a house, imagine living under a daytime temperature of 60^oC! that’s where we are currently headed.

The entire world is aware of this threat and several countries are already developing policies to combat this ugly trend, part of which includes afforestation, tree planting campaigns, the switch to cleaner renewable source of energy, the ban on the use of fossil fuel cars (of which most countries have set 2030 as the deadline. Meaning electric vehicles will be the only permitted vehicles to be used from 2030), amongst others.

Individuals are encouraged to join this movement by not only complying to government policies, but also by planting trees and gardens as well as cutting down their energy consumption. Before purchasing any appliance, be sure to go for the energy efficient ones as they consume less watts/power. Switch off appliances when not in use, disconnect wall sockets when not in use, use LED bulbs instead of incandescent light bulbs, avoid burning of refuse, talk to that neighbour that consistently violates all these and most importantly, get educated on how to live smart and protect the ecosystem.

You can search google to gain a basic understanding of how to contribute to solving this global problem by making some few adjustments in your home. If you don’t own a home yet, then it’s even best for you to learn about this. You don’t want to spend money in erecting a building and later wish to have done it better and smarter.

We are the first generation to feel the effect of climatic change and the last generation to do something about it. Do something today to create a safer earth for our unborn generation(s).