With 0.6Km Speed Yearly Southwards, Sahara Desert May Eclipse 5 Yobe State Council Areas
By Hamisu Ado Nguru
OpenLife Nigeria reports that environmental experts have released warning signals that with a 0.6Km yearly southwards speed, the Sahara desert is set to encroach deeper into the desert free areas in not too distant future, with dire consequence on about local government council areas of Yobe State.
This disclosure was made at the 2023 World Environment Day.
The global June 5 annual event, led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) encourages awareness and action for the protection of the environment.
The 2023 World Environment Day theme titled “Solutions to plastic pollution” with the hashtag #BeatPlasticPollution, expatiates on plastic pollution as a major environmental problem where millions of tons of plastic waste end up in our oceans, landfills, and waterways every year.
According to environmental experts, plastic can harm wildlife, pollute our air and water, and contribute to climate change.
However, in Yobe State, the challenge is all about desert encroachment.
Five local government areas are adversely affected by the menace of desertification.
The affected local government areas are: Yunusari, Karasuwa, Nguru, Machina and Yusufari.
In these council areas, many inhabitants have been forced to flee due to sudden or gradual alterations in the natural environment related to at least one or two impacts of desertification and climate change.
Yobe State strategically lies between Latitude 10 degrees 27 minutes and 13 degrees 23 minutes North and Latitude 9 degrees 40 minutes and 12 degrees 30 minutes east of the equator; the State falls within the Sahel Savannah region with sparse vegetation occasioned by high temperatures particularly between the months of March to July.
While harmattan is the experience between the month of November to February, rainfall for barely three to four-month from June to September with August recording the highest rainfall, similarly early rains are usually accompanied with heavy sandstorms.
Yobe State is located not too far away from the Sahara desert; this antecedent accompanied a very serious challenge to both our governments, multinational organizations, non-governmental organizations, and local communities.
Accordingly, Environmental activist during several forum indicated that with the speed of 0.6KM yearly southwards, the Sahara desert is set to encroach deeper into the desert free areas in not too distant future if nothing concretely and sustainable is done to check desertification.
This 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the event.
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