07 November 2012, Sweetcrude, ABUJA —THE United Nations, UN, Tuesday, said if Nigeria as a country must achieve environmental sustainability, it must force foreign oil companies that must have polluted the communities to engage in a total clean-up of the areas they operate.
According to the apex world body also, if Nigeria must end the present problem of flooding that submerged many communities, rendered many homeless, killed many and property worth millions of naira destroyed, the the government must, as a matter of urgency, partner with the various universities across the country.
These were raised when the Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the UN on Millenium Development Goals, MDGs, Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs led a delegation of three from the world body on a visit to the Chairman, Senate Committee on MDGs, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume.
Sachs spoke of the United Nations plans towards ensuring the eradication of poverty by 2030 in line with its vision of “achieving environmental sustainability.
He said: “The MDGs had MDGs serving environmental sustainability but I can tell you there was never enough focus on that to really address the scale of the challenge,” he stated.
The envoy also stressed that the UN had already embarked on providing a sustainable Development Solutions Network that would address environmental challenges in issues of flooding, draught, deforestation, desertification, among others.