The Nigerian government has commenced its maiden retreat for the Governing Structures of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project HYPREP in Ogoniland cleanup in Southern Nigeria.

The retreat comprises the Governing Council, GC, Board of Trustees BOT, the Project Coordination Office, PCO and the Central Representative Advisory Committee, CRAC.

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Environment, Sharon Ikeazor, declared open the retreat in the Abuja the nation’s capital on Thursday.

Ikeazor said the retreat would enable the government to collectively chart a new and more efficient way of delivering on the HYPREP project together.

She said; “We are gathered here to primarily familiarise ourselves with our different roles and to also fine-tune same into a seamless operation for the Project.

The set goals and objectives, which is primarily to clean-up Ogoniland and provide the recommended deliverables as contained in the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP Report and can be easily delivered when we act as a team with a single goal. UNEP is facilitating this retreat and will at the discussion session clarify the different roles of each of the arms as contained in the gazette establishing the project.”

She noted that the Governing Council is empowered to manage and superintend the policies of HYPREP as well as provide the general policy guidelines relating to its functions.

The Minister said; “the Board of Trustees carry out financial oversight that ensures the use of financial controls, ensuring that funds are prudently utilized in accordance with established financial policies. The Project Coordination Office on the other hand is responsible for the overall execution of the project for which it was established, while the Central Representative Advisory Committee shall establish and maintain primary contact between HYPREP and the Ogoni communities.”

Ikeazor added that it was necessary that these functions are assigned individually but are to be executed in synergy with each other to attain the goals and deliver on its mandate.

The project coordinator HYPREP, Dr, Giadom Dumbari said “he is committed to implementing the recommendations of the UNEP report to improve the lives of the Ogoni people.”

Dr Dumbari said; “We bring together our collective pool of knowledge, experience, network and determination to deliver a clean resilient and liveable environment for Ogoni people. An environment capable of delivering its ecosystem services in full, which will enhance the livelihood and wellbeing of the Ogoni people.”

He further said his tenure would deploy key drivers to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to deliver HYPREP’s Projects successfully.

He said; “To make this happen, we must be laser-focused on the goal, engendering the support of each other and developing the kind of synergy that will fast track the implementation of well thought-through programmes that will resonate with all stakeholders.”

According to him, for remediation projects to succeed, they should be preceded by detailed site characterisation. This he said provides a clear picture of the configuration and properties of the subsurface.

It reveals the character of the fate and transport (migration) of the contaminants; their distribution and concentrations.

UNEP Technical Advisor, Mike Cowing said UNEP would continue to work with the Nigeria in providing technical support on the implementation of the cleanup of Ogoniland.

Cowing said; “I think the important thing is to learn from the lesson from the past the first HYPREP crashed, and we need to understand why, there was a lack of transparency lack of accountability, we are on to HYPREP two and we are making incremental improvement.”

The Czech Republic launched a tender on Thursday to build a new reactor at the Dukovany nuclear plant as the country aims to increase nuclear power generation.

Three companies — U.S. Westinghouse, France’s EDF and Korea’s KHNP — have passed a Czech government security appraisal and are expected to bid for the lucrative project.

The project’s estimated cost of around 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) is the biggest single investment in the Czech Republic, Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Sikela said.

Russian and Chinese companies, including Russia’s energy giant Rosatom and China’s CNG, have been excluded from the tender on security grounds.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala said Russian participation in the key project for the country’s energy security was “unimaginable” following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The new reactor will complement Dukovany’s four 510-megawatt units that were completed in the late 1980s. It should become operational by 2036, Fiala said.

Much of Mozambique’s rice will be grown on irrigated landImage caption: Much of Mozambique’s rice will be grown on irrigated land.

Mozambique must reduce its reliance on imported cereals, the government says, warning that current wheat and fertiliser shortages may result in price rises.

By 2030 Mozambique plans to produce all of its own rice, Agricultural Minister Celso Correia said.

It is one of several African nations reliant on wheat imports from Ukraine, now struggling as European nation enters its third week of conflict with Russian invaders.

They’ve often been accused of predatory behaviour
Digital and mobile app money lenders in Kenya have been given until the end of September to either apply for an operating licence or cease operations.

The Central Bank of Kenya Governor Peter Njoroge says regulations governing the lenders will be gazetted later this month, meaning all the apps will be regulated by the government.

They’ve often been accused of predatory behaviour, high interest rates and customer harassment for those who failed to pay the loans on time.

The government has since early 2020 blocked digital lenders from listing defaulters with Credit Reference Bureaus – saying the companies had abused the system.

Hot air from the Sahara Desert has swirled over the Mediterranean Sea and coated Spain with red-orange dust, prompting authorities to issue extremely bad air quality warnings Tuesday for Madrid and a large swath of the country.

The national air quality index listed the capital and large parts of the southeast coast as “extremely unfavorable” — its worst rating.

Spain’s weather service described the dust storm from the Sahara as “extraordinary and very intense,” while adding that it was unclear if it was the worst episode of its kind on record.

Spain’s weather service forecast that the dust will continue to accumulate through Wednesday and could reach as far north as the Netherlands and northwestern Germany.

On Tuesday, the dust storm spilled over into neighboring Portugal.

Many Spaniards awoke to find a layer of red-orange dust covering their terraces, streets and cars.

The sky in the capital and other cities had a gritty tinge. Visibility in Madrid and cities like Granada and Leon was reduced to 2.5 miles (four kilometers), the weather service said.

The Eiffel Tower Was Built By Gustave Eiffel For The 1889 Exposition Universelle, Which Was To Celebrate The 100th Year Anniversary Of The French Revolution.

Its construction in 2 years, 2 months and 5 days was a veritable technical and architectural achievement.

“Utopia achieved”, a symbol of technological prowess, at the end of the 19th Century it was a demonstration of French engineering, and a defining moment of the industrial era.

As France’s symbol in the world, and the showcase of Paris, today it welcomes almost 7 million visitors a year, making it the most visited monument that you have to pay for in the world.

The Eiffel Tower Grew By Six Meters March 15 After Engineers Hoisted A New Communications Antenna At The Very Top Of France’s Most Iconic Landmark.

Tourists watched from the Trocadero esplanade as the new digital radio antenna was helicoptered up.

With The New Antenna, The Eiffel Tower Grew From 324 Meters Tall To 330 Meters.

The Eiffel Tower company’s president, Jean-François Martins, said scientific progress is an integral part of the Iron Lady’s 133-year history.

The Eiffel Tower Was 312 Meters High When It Was Inaugurated On March 31, 1889.

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HISTORY

The tower was met with resistance from the public when it was built, with many calling it an eyesore (Novelist Guy de Maupassant ate at a restaurant at the tower regularly, because it was the one place in Paris he was sure he wouldn’t see it).

Today, it is widely considered to be a striking piece of struOne of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower.

In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to a few stories, only the very few taller buildings have a clear view of the tower.

Originally, Eiffel Had A Permit For The Tower To Stand For 20 Years (meaning it would have had to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris, which had originally planned to tear it down; part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily torn down).

As The Tower Later Proved Valuable For Communication Purposes, It Was Allowed To Remain After The Expiry Of The Permit.

The military used it to dispatch Parisian taxis to the front line of the Marne, and it therefore became a victory statue of that battle.

It was also used to catch the infamous “Mata Hari,” and after this, its demolition became unthinkable to the French population.

INSTALLATIONS

Since The Beginning Of The Twentieth Century, The Tower Has Been Used For Radio Transmission.

Until the 1950s, an occasionally modified set of antenna wires ran from the summit to anchors on the Avenue de Suffren and Champ de Mars.

They were connected to long-wave transmitters in small bunkers; in 1909, a permanent underground radio center was built near the south pillar and still exists today.

Track up – Eiffel Tower transmitting TV-radio to 12 million Parisians

During the German occupation of Paris between 1940 and 1944 the tower was also used for German television broadcasts, which were apparently intended mostly for wounded German soldiers in local military hospitals.

Since 1957, The Tower Has Been Used For Transmission Of FM Radio And Television.

STATISTICS

The Eiffel Tower Stretches Approximately 300 Meters High. Including the 20.75 m antenna, the structure is 320.75 m high, which is about 81 stories.

Completed in 1889, the tower replaced the Washington Monument as the tallest structure in the world, a title it retained until 1930, when New York City’s Chrysler Building (319 m tall) was completed (although the tower was still taller if the respective spires of the two structures were excluded).

In 1902, It Was Struck By Lightning, Which Caused Builders To Reconstruct 300 Feet Of The Top Later In 1902-1903.

The lights illuminating the tower also had to be replaced, due to short-circuiting.

The Tower Is The Second-Highest Structure In France, After The 350 Meters Allouis Longwave Transmitter, Built In 1930.

The Eiffel tower is the highest structure in Paris. The iron structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tons, and the total weight is 10,100 tons.

Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 8 cm (3.25 inches), due to expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.

Maintenance Of The Tower Includes Applying 50/60 Tons Of Three Graded Tones Of Paint Every Seven Years To Protect It From Rust.

However, few people realize that the tower is actually painted three different colors in order to make it look the same color.

The colors change from dark to light from top to bottom, but it looks the same because of the background (the sky being light and the ground being dark).

On the first floor, there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the color to use for a future session of painting.

FACTS

Hitler Ordered Eiffel Tower To Be Destroyed

When Germany occupied France during the second World War, Hitler ordered that the Eiffel Tower be torn down, but the order was never followed through. French resistance fighters got their revenge, though—they cut the Tower’s elevator cables so the Nazis were forced to climb the stairs to hoist their flag.

The Eiffel Tower Is Cousin Of Sorts To Statue Of Liberty

Before the Eiffel Tower was built, Eiffel’s firm was asked to design the internal frame for the Statue of Liberty, a task assigned to his trusted employee, Maurice Koechlin. They proved their iron handiwork with Lady Liberty first.

There’s A Post Office In Eiffel Tower

Tucked into the first floor of the Tower next to the gift shops, there is a tiny post office. Pick up une carte postale and a stamp and have it mailed from the Eiffel Tower’s post office and it will be delivered with the unique postmark.

The Eiffel Tower Doubled As Scientific Laboratory

Mr. Eiffel housed a meteorology lab on the Tower’s third floor where he performed studies in physics, aerodynamics, and built a wind tunnel. Eiffel opened the doors of the laboratory to other scientists to use for the experiments, too, and cosmic rays were discovered there.

The Eiffel Tower Moves

The massive iron structure is wind resistant and will sway during a storm. If the weather is bad enough, it can even move. Wind isn’t the only thing that can make the enormous Tower move, though—the heat of the sun also affects the Tower, causing the iron to expand and contract up to 7 inches.

The Eiffel Tower Is Covered In Names Of Scientists

French scientists and engineers working in the 19th century were not forgotten by history—not only did they lend their names to Parisian streets, but 72 of their names are also engraved on the Eiffel Tower. The engraved tributes were covered up, but thanks to a restoration effort, they are once again visible and eagle-eyed visitors can see names like Foucault, Dumas, and Perrier cut into the iron.

There’s A Military Bunker Underneath Eiffel Tower

Underneath the Tower’s south pillar sits a snug bit of history—a secret military bunker that may connect to the nearby Ecole Militaire via a long tunnel. The bunker has now been turned into a small museum and tour groups can explore the diminutive space.

Kate And William Played Rugby In Front Of Paris’ Eiffel Tower

Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate play rugby with children in front of the Eiffel Tower during an official visit to Paris, months before the 20th anniversary of the death of William’s mother Diana in a car crash in the French capital.

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If it’s your first time in Paris, going up the Eiffel Tower is a must. Visitors can choose to go up using the Tower lift or the stairs.

However, before making your mind up on how you want to visit the monument, It Is Important To Keep In Mind That There Are 1,665 Steps To The Top.

The best moment to enjoy the breath-taking views of Paris is early in the morning to avoid the lines or at dusk, when visitors will see Paris lit up.

A long-delayed plan to build a giant reservoir in Northern California to help withstand the U.S. West’s notorious droughts got a huge financial boost on Thursday when the federal government signaled its intent to loan the project nearly $2.2 billion — about half of the cost to design, plan and build it.

The proposal would flood what’s left of the town of Sites, a tiny community with just a handful of residents nestled in a valley of the coastal range mountains in rural Colusa County.

The idea has been around since the 1950s, but there has never been enough money or political will to move it forward.

But now a megadrought caused by climate change that researchers say is the worst in 1,200 years has renewed interest in the project, and efforts to move the project forward are happening quickly.

It is also in line to get about $875 million from a voter-approved bond, plus another $450 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.