SPEECH BY H.E. SENATOR DOUYE DIRI, GOVERNOR,
BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA AT THE UN SPECIAL SESSION ON
THE DELTAS TAKING PLACE AT THE UN DELTA CONFERENCE,
HOLDING IN NEW YORK FROM 22ND 24TH MARCH, 2023
Your Excellencies
Distinguished Delegates
Experts
Ladies and Gentlemen
I will like to begin a very brief remark by saluting the thoughtfulness and
foresight of the Secretary General of the United Nations and his team
for hosting this United Nations Water Conference. Let me also specially
acknowledge and appreciate the group of experts that have aligned with
the Government and People of Bayelsa State to draw special attention
to the topic of the day.
For us as a people from Bayelsa state, one of Nigeria’s most impacted
sub-national entities, the entire conference and the prominent side-
event with the theme “Integrative Highland to Ocean, Action for
Disappearing Deltas: Towards the UN Convention on Conversing River
Deltas” is very apt to and hinges on our very survival as a people.
It is for this reason that we are participating in a very robust manner in
this conference and hope that its outcome will create a better
understanding of the peculiarities of the existential challenges which we
indigenous people of the world’s deltas face and the urgent need to be
able to come up with coordinated actions and plans to remediate the
state of affairs.
Bayelsa State is one of Nigeria’s 36 sub-regional entities; it is at the
heart of what is known as the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta itself is
70,000 square kilometres of largely wetlands, formed by the River Niger
after its 4,200 kilometres journey from the Guinea Islands, down to its
exit point into the Atlantic Ocean in the South-South of Nigeria. Since
my state is the point from where this River finally drains into the ocean,
we are a people whose biodiversity and livelihood are largely
determined by the rivers, creeks, streams, rivulets, and all manners of
water bodies around us.
Historically, our ancestors have lived for thousands of years in these
marshy lands and adapted fairly sufficiently to the vagaries of living in
such an environment. However, in recent times, we have become the
victims of threats of near extinction, both of our land and the entire
ecosystem and biodiversity as a result of the stark realities of Climate
Change. Due to climate change, the incidence of perennial flooding has
now exacerbated into the recent reoccurrence of monster floods. So,
on regular basis, our entire communities, human settlements, farmlands
and fish ponds are all totally covered by water on several months every
year. As would be expected, this has great implications on human
settlement, as well on plants and animals.
As if that is not enough, these floods also have great implication on
watershed management as they are creating high levels of
sedimentation of our water system, river erosion and land degradation.
The other big threat which we are combatting is the question of rise in
sea levels and coastal erosion. The rise in sea levels has led to
submerging in almost all our communities on the ocean springboard on
the Gulf of Guinea. As a matter of fact, a good number of communities
which existed about 30 years before now are right now as far as about
2 kilometres into the ocean.
This threat continues on yearly basis as more and more communities
and people are almost being wiped out. I particularly want to give the
example of a community known as Koluama which has since been split
into two as a result of coastal erosion. Despite remedial measure such
as sea walls, both communities’ are still under first line threat. Similarly
is the case of Odioma town. With the rise of sea water, there is also
great implication of salt water intrusion in almost all our communities.
The Way Forward
We do realise that what we are facing in Bayelsa is a similar fate which
our friends in some other Deltaic regions of the world are going through.
The recent experience of flooding in Pakistan and Mozambique and
other places in low lying areas are fresh in our memories and we do
commiserate with them on the huge losses which occurred. What
remain, therefore, at this time is concerted efforts on different fronts:
i. First is creating awareness in the peculiar existential threats
which the deltas are going through;
ii. Training of “Community Scientists” like the Akassa
Development Foundation and several others. These need to be
trained and equipped to take local measurements and to note
observations that can be fed up via the internet to climate
scientists and disaster managers who are in dire need of data
in real time direct from impacted localities.
iii. Creating the ambience for exchange of views and sharing of
experiences and what remedial measures could be taken;
iv. Galvanising international support to help build local capacity
for adaptation; and
v. Sourcing and deploying financial support to vulnerable
communities in combatting these global existential threats.
In this direction, I call on the UN to scale up activities for the intervention
and conservation of river deltas with a special recognition or a
convention. For the purpose of creating greater clarity, as I pledged
during the last UN Summit at Sharm El Sheik in Egypt, the Bayelsa
State Government will be wiling, working with the Nigerian national
authorities and the United Nations, to host an International Conference
of the Deltas. For this, we will appreciate any technical and financial
support from partners and friends to enable us take this first step and
thereby allow experts and policy makers in the various Deltas around
the world to share ideas and have more robust conceptual thoughts on
the way forward. I would also like to add the importance of ensuring that
this Question of the Deltas is given a robust place at the next UN
Climate Change Conference which we hope will hold in Dubai, UAE in
2023.
Once more, I want to thank you most sincerely for having us in this
conference and look forward to a very beneficial outcome for all the
stakeholders.
Thank you for listening.