Nigeria: Lekki residents ignore ocean surge warning, storm beaches

Residents of Lekki area of Lagos State are ignoring the latest warning by the state government of imminent danger from Sea Level Rise, SLR, which could lead to loss of lives and property. They have remained in their homes pretending that the warnings are inconsequential.

UNICEF steps up support as Namibia grapples with worst drought in decades

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is scaling up support, including nutrition education and infant feeding activities, in Namibia, which is currently facing its worst drought in three decades.

Hong Kong Officials Seize Tusks, Rhino Horns And Leopard Skins Worth $5.3M

Hong Kong customs officials have seized a shipment of illegal ivory, rhino horns and leopard skins worth $5.3 million in the territory's second big bust of endangered species products in a month.

West Africa cholera down but officials vigilant

Some 1,700 people in West Africa have contracted cholera since mid-June, a significant decline compared to the same seven-week period in 2012 when 11,834 were affected.

Kenya: Hands Off Our Elephants, Says First Lady

First lady Margaret Kenyatta on Friday evening launched an anti-poaching campaign to respond to rampant poaching, which continues to reap Kenya of its most affluent and significant tourist attractions.

Dolphin breaks free, reunites with its family

A dolphin named Sampal broke free from a Korean Rehab facility to unite with its family.

NOA urges Nigerians to stop acts leading to flooding

The Director of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Abia, Mrs Ngozi Uduma, has called on Nigerians to desist from acts capable of endangering the environment.

Illegal marijuana cultivation threatens Nigeria's forests and chimps

                                                         Pix Courtesy Stuttershock

The world's highest deforestation rate, the execution of eight environmental activists including a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and ongoing turmoil surrounding oil operations in the Niger River Delta has created a notoriously disreputable environmental record for the West African country. Now, a new threat is rising in the already-compromised forests of Nigeria: illegal marijuana cultivation.

Kenya: Schools Deplete 60 Trees a Day - Expert

Green Africa Foundation chairman Isaac Kalua has asked schools to find alternative sources of energy like biogas. Addressing school heads in Mombasa yesterday, Kalua, who is an environment expert, said schools depend too much on wood fuel.

Scratch-card solar brings clean energy to Kenya's poor

Pix: Timothy Nyongesa compares the light from a kerosene tin lamp with that from an IndiGo solar lamp, hanging in his home. THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION/Isaiah Esipisu

At Sibanga market, 10 km (6 miles) outside the town of Kitale in western Kenya, Timothy Nyongesa walks into the Mibawa Suppliers shop to collect a gadget that he hopes will brighten his children’s studies and his family’s health.

In exchange for an initial payment of 1,000 Kenyan shillings (about $12), Nyongesa walks out with a kit that will generate solar energy at his home. He jumps on his bicycle and snakes along a footpath to his village of Sinyerere, 6 km farther into the countryside.

Nigeria: Senator Bukola Saraki Speaks On World Desertification Day

The goal of the 2013 World Day to Combat Desertification is to create awareness about the risks of drought and water scarcity in the dry lands and beyond, calling attention to the importance of sustaining healthy soils as part of post Rio+20 agenda, as well as the post-2015 sustainable development agenda.

Dangote Begins Conversion of Vehicles from Diesel to Gas

A major leap in the ongoing efforts at providing gas as alternative automobile fuel has been taken, as Sagas Energy Company Limited, the pivot of the new technology in Africa, began the conversion of heavy-duty trucks for use of gas as fuel.

Liberia Loses US$17.5M Annually Due to Open Defecation, Poor Sanitation – World Bank

                                  A toilet house in West Point, along the Messurado River in Monrovia. Courtesy Liberian Observer

According to a March 2012 study recently released in Monrovia by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), 1.2 million Liberians use unsanitary or shared latrines, whilst another 1.7 million have no latrine at all and defecate in the open. According to the study’s results, the poorest population is almost 7 times more likely to practice open defecation than the richest. The Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program observed that Liberia’s economy loses US$17.5 million (2.0 percent of GDP) each year due to poor sanitation.

Nigeria: NGO advocates ‘waste exchange’ to curb waste

A non-governmental organisation, Waste Management Society of Nigeria, has said that waste can be managed through waste exchange, environmental education and effective sanitation enlightenment.

Africa: Matt Damon Seeks Safe Water, Sanitation for All

Through his nonprofit organization, actor Matt Damon hopes to bring the dignity of a toilet to all.