By Fatou Sanneh
The Permanent Secretary (PS) at the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources, (MECCNAR) Mr. Alieu Njie has called on faith leaders to be in the forefront in addressing environment and climate issues in the country.
Mr Njie was speaking on behalf of the Hon. Minister, Mrs. Rohey John Manjang, during the opening ceremony of the Faith For Our Planet Regional Workshop.
“The world today is faced with an unprecedented environmental crisis because of its effect on the lives of the people,” he stated.
He opined that environmental issues must be humanised and addressed through the common humanity motives and shared values. He added that the threat of climate change should be addressed by building a broad-based coalition that would include faith leaders, given their role in the communities.
“Based on the training and valuable insights we have had here, we hope that faith leaders would play a role in citizen engagement and bringing environment and climate issues to the top agenda to create moral and social transformation in our country,’’ he said.
In recent times The Gambia has faced flood and windstorms that have ravaged the country and displaced thousands of citizens. This year in July, the county had the worst floods in 38 years that displaced about 5000 people and destroyed houses, leaving thousands destitute.
Faith For Our Planet (FFOP) is a global interfaith coalition convened by the Muslim World League (MWL) to fight climate change, which aims to unite the world’s leading governmental, political, religious, and civil society actors to protect our planet.
