BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
Assistant Professor Mengistu Wube was fond of natural resources since childhood. He says he has got such a lesson from his family who were residing in rural parts of Ethiopia. As an environmental activist, he had been undertaking various tasks at the national level and committed to bringing about tangible changes in the sector.
Mengistu (Ph.D) was born and raised in a rural area around Gondar town of Amhara State. As there was no school in the nearby area, he spent most of his childhood period attending informal school education that is linked to the Orthodox Church.
Lately, he moved to Addis Ababa and attended night shift education at Teferi Mekonnen School at the age of 16. He then continued education at Beyene Meride, Cathedral Catholic School and Saint Joseph schools in Addis Ababa.
Apart from attending modern school education in the night shift, Mengistu had been engaged in various activities to earn a living.
He was then hired by Telecommunication Corporation. Following the invitation presented to him, he went to Israel. After staying for some time, he requested asylum from the Swedish government and went there. Mengistu then joined Uppsala University and made his first degree in the social science sector. He earned a second degree in bio-geography from the same university.
Considering Mulugeta’s score, the university encouraged him to get a Doctoral degree in agriculture. The man who has a special place for education has also pursued a postdoctoral study from an agricultural university based in Sweden. Without limiting himself, he again received an assistant professorship from Uppsala University. Apart from serving the university as a lecturer, he conducted over 20 studies that were published in scientific journals.
Mengistu established a company called Bio-food Association which is a nonprofit organization with the vision of expanding urban agriculture to make citizens beneficiary. With a total area land of 3,000 square meters, women produce vegetables, fruits and rear animals to make a living. Establishing a company called Wanza International Consulting, he consults various organizations in connection with the environment, agriculture and related issues. In his short stay with The Ethiopian Herald newspaper, he raised a range of issues that are directly or indirectly related to climate change and its impact. Excerpts:
Would you please tell us your view of the attempts made so far in Ethiopia to protect the living environment and the outcome?
In my view, we are not working enough as compared to the experiences of other countries. In short, we are now at risk. What we desire is economic progress. European countries quit the smoke releasing industry since the 15th century. There was industrial air pollution as the numbers of industries were increasing and opened up at every corner.
By then, the wealth of a given country was measured by the smoke that comes out of these industries. But later on, they woke up as the number of diseases was alarming here and there. After they travelled a long way, they turned their faces to environmental protection. We are now found at the time they already passed.
Though there are some efforts or trials, because of no commitment at all, a notable change has yet to come. Individuals are assigned not to be pragmatic in bringing remarkable changes, they instead improve their livelihood at the expense of the people’s benefit.
We build houses, drop wastes, and cultivate the land as we wish. We also set a garage or industry without fulfilling the requirement for industrial wastes disposal. The perception we had for environment protection should be improved so as to bring notable change in the environment. For society to bring viable change in these regards, the system needs to be improved.
If we take the good practice of other countries, they begin environmental protection works since kindergarten level. Every kindergarten must train children about environment protection and its impact.
They educate them on how they guard and make others alert to do so. Children from developing countries who travelled to the western world tried to cut trees as they learned from their families. However, a child who observes them doing so will surely stop them. These children also warned their families not to cut trees.
I had a chance to visit some countries such as Sweden, England, Norway, Switzerland and America. Without a doubt, children are the foundation for environmental protection.
When I was a child, my uncle used to fight against those who cut trees. Unfortunately, following his death, the place immediately turned to desert. Those who fought for environmental protection were not honoured.
The government has not shown a real commitment to environment protection and reverse climate change. If you take the Gada system – it is a good culture. Institutions were not established to develop and use our multiple cultures to safeguard the existing environment.
Due to less awareness about the environment, we could not bring a notable change in practice. We were not establishing environment protection institutions. Though there are some, they are bogus or nominal ones. They are not ready to change themselves first. Even though they have observed industry waste flowing to rivers, they did not take corrective measures.
For instance, I repeatedly complained to environmental institutions about the hazards of releasing toxic industrial wastes to rivers,
but they do not want to take measures on them. If these institutions are changed, the effort of environment protection would bear fruit. In our country trees are being planted especially these days which is by far better than before. However, there are two fundamental issues here. Though there is land use right in the country; there is no land ownership license. One can witness that there is an absence of land policy and land use planning.
That is why we build houses in areas conducive to agriculture and vice-versa. An investor came and constructed a factory in a place that should be kept for a reserved area. This is due to the absence of land use planning. If things continue like this, the attitude of the society would remain unchanged and we will be affected by drought.
There is some sort of effort observed in Ethiopia to build a resilient green economy. How do you see it?
Environment protection requires endless commitment. It should not be done for the sake of politics. I am appreciating what is going on as commencing something new should not be taken as a simple task. The point I want to raise always is, the issue of sustainability.
When I was in Sweden, I was a board member of an environment party. Most of the people are governed by this board. When we come to ours, I appreciate the plantation efforts as many trees are being planted every year. However, the institutions have to be committed to making it sustainable.
Unless these institutions are committed to raising the awareness of the people at the grass-root level, how can they influence others? Thus, they have to be a model for the rest of the people by not purchasing expensive cars which takes too much petroleum oils.
They have to give high value to natural resources and support innovators who come up with new ideas. Without doing all these, talking too much about a green economy is not helpful to ensure sustainability.
By the initiative of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia has now devised and commenced various projects such as the Dine for Sheger and Ethiopia project. What do you say about this by looking at it from an environmental protection perspective?
It is an awesome project. However, some people say that the projects have been commenced for the sake of political gain which is far from reality. The Prime Minister is very smart and intelligent and he can show us his commitment by realizing the Sheger project within a specified and a short period.
Taking the lesson from this, the people at the grass-root level have been following in his footsteps and contribute some to the environment reside in. I, for instance, developed my garden which previously served as garbage.
The people who reside in the surrounding area are amazed and extracted lesson from it. Smart leader start jobs from the scratch and scale them up at national level. Inversely, if the Premier started jobs from giant projects, he would not be effective as lessons can be gained from small projects.
When we look at the project from an environmental perspective, apart from changing the scenery of the capital, it would create a cooling system. When you create moisture, other plants obtain a chance to develop and minimize specks of dust from the area we reside in. Observing the green areas by itself has a high impact on the human mind.
Do you tell us the impact of green areas on the mental development of human beings?
As I told you before, green areas have the power of transforming the psychology of human beings. Apart from this, environmental protection has the capacity of creating job opportunities for many citizens. If we are wisely exploiting, the environment sector will create jobs better than that of the industry sector.
If we look at the Sheger river basin project, for instance, it has already created jobs for many people. If this is so, the Dine for Ethiopia projects will have the capacity of generating jobs for enormous citizens. What is more, the green environment has healing power. Such a sort of treatment is called hydrotherapy.
Hydrotherapy is the use of water, both internally and externally and at varying temperatures, for health purposes. If you swim in the pool, you are treating yourself through hydrotherapy. It renews yourself and builds your psychological makeup. On the other hand, some people adore smelling sweet flavour that comes out of plants rather than inhaling dust.
Such a project has created a cooling system and changes the scenery of that place apart from reducing pollution. A given tree has a capacity of absorbing carbon-dioxide which is enough to expose four people to disease. Every plant has its role to play.
So, it is up to us to choose the good one. Whatever it is, the development of green areas, be it by the government or private sector, makes the people benefit in many respects. Even if these projects will not directly generate income, they would rather make others beneficial in many ways.
Here it is imperative to say something about carbon trading. It is the process of buying and selling permits and credits that allow the permit holder to emit carbon dioxide. As a result, if you are contributing some for environment protection, the tax you are required to pay is getting reduced. So the Dine for Ethiopia projects will contribute greater to the living environment.
Let me take you to Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam. How do you relate the overall impact of the project on the ever-increasing climate change?
The dam will have a greater impact on the effort to reduce the ever-increasing climate change impacts. If Ethiopia built small dams before commencing the grand dam, they would create a cooling system in the region. Secondly, the society residing in the area will get benefit from various projects related to the dam.
Third, nobody would protest Ethiopia as an enemy as the country already secured high economic performance. In addition to that, the country will gain an economic return from the dam by promoting tourism, fishery and entertainment.
Many countries can register notable economic progress by constructing small and mega-dams as well as promoting tourism by creating artificial lakes.
Some experts suggest that Ethiopia deserves to gain ecosystem service from downstream countries. What is your position?
I have repeatedly disclosed my position for various media outlets. Sudan and Egypt should pay for the ecosystem service they gained from Ethiopia. The idea should be tabled as one point of negotiation in the unfinished GERD deal.
These countries have not been obtaining water alone; they have been acquiring fertile soil with its nutrients. Second, the resource that has been released to downstream countries never terminates for a while. If the downstream countries want to survive from climate change, Sudan and Egypt should finance water shade management projects carried out in Ethiopia.
If it continues as it is, millions of people who depend on surface water would cut trees for firewood and the source of Blue Nile will be dried. This may change the livelihood of the people dependent on the river. Sudan and Egypt should promise to pay for ecosystem services. If this is so we can utilize the natural ecosystem. To maintain the ecosystem service they have been gaining from Ethiopia, the two countries should finance water conservation projects instead of complaining about the decline of Nile waters.
Some people said Ethiopia will export its waters and maximize foreign currency earnings. Would you please reflect your view on that?
This is wishful thinking. It will be true if things are going on condition. To protect the environment, we should give priority to changing the awareness of society towards natural resources and human ecosystems. The natural ecosystem always recycles itself.
Ethiopia is a water tower of northeast Africa and can sell pure water using its ancient lakes, especially for Middle East countries. That is why downstream countries are tirelessly working to make the country not stable for long. If we manage our water resources and be able to use them properly, drought and famine would be history.
The volume of most of the rift valley lakes is said to be shrinking. What do you think are the reasons behind this?
This is an outcome of global climate change impacts. What makes the issue more alarming is, the weak land management system we applied. If we protect the watershed system, we will never see such a drastic change in our lakes. Most of the lakes are filled with sands and the water level of the lake has reached its peak and causes flooding. The solution is applying a good water shade management system.
As a consultant and environmental activist, please say something about the world climate change summit? Do you think it would bring notable change? How did you evaluate the effort made so far?
The Conference of the Parties (COP) summit which has been carried out so far is a nominal one. Most of the parties have no better intention than participating in the summit. I think this will not add something new for Ethiopia. What I want to suggest here is, there are two concepts in the environment: mitigation and adaptation.
If we leave the mitigation measures, instead of begging dollars from foreign countries, we can change the reality on the ground via planting trees in small plots of land and show our commitment by watering the plant until it flourishes and bring change in the environment by simply adapting Prime Minister Abiy’s initiative.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you too.
The Ethiopian Herald March 23/2021
