NESREA steps up effort to control vehicular emission

Dr Ngeri Benebo, NESREA Director General, said at the opening of a stakeholders’ meeting on vehicular emission in Abuja that the federal government decided to embark on the vehicular emission control programme as a result of recent statistics from WHO which noted that over 7 million people died of air pollution in 2012.
“This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk. Reducing air pollution therefore could save millions of lives.”
She said that about 10 million vehicles and 3 million motorcycles ply the nation’s roads.
“In Nigeria, vehicular emissions have been more intense by the increasing number of old and poorly maintained vehicles. About 1.2 million vehicles ply the roads in the FCT. Traffic congestion is a common site on the roads in our major cities and people spend a lot of time in traffic jams inhaling toxic gases from these smoky vehicles,” she said.
She said that NESREA was relying on the powers of environmental regulations of 2011 to carry out the enforcement.
“The programme is aimed at reducing air pollution as well as removing cars that are not road worthy from our roads. Identifying and repairing these vehicles will significantly reduce toxic emission, improve the vehicles performance and earn the nation carbon credit,” she added.