The Osun Government is to begin the conversion of human and animal wastes to industrial powder for cooking

The Osun Government is to begin the conversion of human and animal wastes to industrial powder for cooking as part of its industrial package for 2013. Mr Bola Ilori, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Environment and Sanitation, said this at Gov. Rauf Aregbesola's second anniversary press conference on Friday in Osogbo. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the plan was to reduce carbon dioxide emission as a way of lessening the impact of climate change. Ilori said the Ministry of Environment and Sanitation had already conducted research and discovered that the technology for the industry was locally available. Specifically, he said, the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, could provide the needed technology such that cooking gas would be extracted from the waste matter. According to him, for effectiveness and efficiency, the state government had already inaugurated both the technical and enforcement committees to work out the modalities. Prof. Olubukola Oyawoye, the commissioner in the ministry, stressed the indispensability of the environment to human existence. According to the commissioner, the growing population and its demand for convenient lifestyle has led to environmental pollution, all forms of degradation and diseases. ''This in turn causes shortages of food, potable or clean water, materials for shelter and other essential resources that would normally make life comfortable." Oyawoye said the state was set to curtail environmental ills such as flooding, erosion, water and air pollution, soil degradation and rainstorms. (NAN)