See Gobe: Federal Govt to ban Pure Water and Sachet Bags by 2014

despoliation of the environment, the
Federal Government yesterday said
plans are underway to ban the use of
plastic bags in the country. Minister of
Environment, Mrs. Hadza Mailafia, who
dropped the hint during the 2013 World
Environment Day celebration in Abuja,
said government would favour the use of
paper bags in their place.
Mailafia, who said the ban would take
effect from January 2014, also said the
Federal Government was also
considering banning the use of sachet
water.
According to her, the move to ban the
plastic bags are necessitated by the
numerous health and environmental
hazards associated with their use.
The minister noted that unlike the paper
bags that could easily decompose,
plastic bags are non-biogradable
materials which could stay in the soil for
years, contaminating water sources
when washed into the rivers by the rain.
Relying on the Food and Agriculture
Organisation, FAO's, statistics, the
environment minister said one-third of
global food production is wasted from
farm to stock which is equivalent to 1.3
billion tonnes of food annually; while an
estimated 870 million people go hungry
worldwide. She said more than 20, 000
children under the age of five also die
daily from hunger.