The Calabar, Cross River State Branch of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), has charged stakeholders to initiate mitigation measures that will cushion the effect of climate change.
It’s Chairman, Ndifon Agbiji, made the call yesterday in Calabar at this year’s World Engineering Day (WED) with the theme: Engineering For A Healthy Planet.
Agbiji said: “For us in Africa, the planet earth and engineering are for sustainable development and to make the society a better place. That is the focus of engineering.
“We are focusing on a healthy planet because, there are predictions and climate change is with us given the anthropogenic event around us including fossil fuels and land use practices in our catchment.
“So, we as engineers must live up to the responsibility of making the planet a healthy place by putting in place mitigation measures to ensure that through engineering practice we make the world a healthy place.
“For us as engineers, we are poised to make the world a better place through engineering,” he stated.
He explained that March 4 every year was reserved for World Federation of Engineering Organisation, for the celebration of the World Engineering Day, adding: “This year, we are focusing on development for a healthy planet for this year’s celebration.”
Also speaking, former Chairman of NSE, Joseph Ukpata, said the United Nations (UN) set aside March 4 to commemorate engineering practice and with focus on sustainable development, saying that in 2015, the UN came up with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), almost all of which have link with engineering.
“Of the 17 goals, engineering has bearing in almost all of them, so there is now emphasis for engineers to look inwards and see how they could make the world sustainable through these different goals that the UN recommended.”
“This event is also happening in Abuja, but here in Calabar, we update engineering practitioners and all Cross River people to the impact of the SDGs and how engineers can mitigate the effects of climate change,” Ukpata stated.
