Nigeria Times

A foremost Civil Society group, and anti-corruption organization, Citizens Watch Advocacy Initiative (CWAI) under the umbrella of the Guild of Civil Societies and Media Executives for Equity, Justice and Transparency in Nigeria (GOCMEJ), has applauded and commended the Comptroller-General of the Federal Fire Service (FFS), Abdulganiyu Jaji, for establishing core values of integrity and transparency in all ramifications of the organization. The organization also praised the CG for reforming and refocusing the organization like never before in line with the resolve to make the country safe and seek stronger cooperation with stakeholders, including coordinating fire disaster management with sister agencies while purchasing state of the art fire equipment and machinery.

In a press release issued in Abuja on Thursday, by the Executive Secretary and Senior Research Fellow of the CWAI, Omoba Kenneth Aigbegbele, the organization commended the present leadership of the Federal Fire Service (FFS) for the turn-around maintenance culture and enhanced capacity building of officers and men of the service through courses, seminars, training, development and partnership with military institutions and other ivory towers across the country and the purchase of fire fighting equipment and gadgets, including the repositioning and rebranding of the Service to meet with international best practices.

The release emphasized that this is unprecedented milestones and achievements and a turning point in the annals of the Service and a tonic to change mantra of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and should be commended by all well-meaning Nigerians for the rapid development achieved within the few months of the present leadership.

Accordingly, the group said it is encouraged by Jaji’s leadership style, open door policy, discipline, transparency and most importantly his remarkable and selfless campaign against corruption, the role of critical fire rescue, assessment and general disaster management, including his patriotic disposition against fire incidents across Nigeria, canvassing and averting fire disasters in our homes and offices which have attracted commendation from all and sundry, including the international community.

“This is judging from the fact that the present management of the Fire Service (FFS) has done so much in its little stay in office by consolidating on premium achievements for the overall betterment of the FFS, transforming and repositioning of the FFS to meet with best global standards and as well, maintaining high ethical standards of accountability and good governance structure in all its operations nationwide and paying backlogs of staff remunerations and allowances and high ‘esprit-de-corps’ displayed by officers and men.

“Judging from the blueprint and the cardinal focus of the present leadership, it has been a plethora of reforms from one to another. As the Jaji-led management has improved service performance measurement, productivity, enhanced advocacy on disaster management and awareness campaign of fire equipment at all buildings across the country for safety and security at all times.

“However, in spite of the daunting challenges faced by the Federal Fire Service, efforts are in place to change the narrative by the Jaji-led management. While the group is also soliciting for enhanced budgetary provisions for the Federal Fire Service for institutional maintenance of its critical facilities, infrastructures and equipment across the country. As the paucity of funds is another major factor militating against actualizing its mandate for the overall growth of the country in disaster management.

“The group endorses and encourages the partnership and collaboration with sister agencies, the private sector and citizenry which has given a morale booster to the management in its rebranding process.

“CWAI, therefore, passes a vote of confidence on the hierarchy of the FFS under Abdulganiyu Jaji, for his forthrightness, vision and strategic direction based on his three-point agenda and blueprint in seeing to it the FFS remains a strategic partner globally in disaster management and hereby enjoins all relevant stakeholders, international organizations, and Nigerians to support and partner with the institutional development, transformational philosophy and revolution presently taking place at the Federal Fire Service and warns distractors to be mindful of their antics and stay off the organization as the present management is focused on the task ahead.” It added.

By Han Xin, People’s Daily

How much water is used for industrial purposes in China, the world’s largest industrial country?

In 2021, China’s industrial water consumption stood at 104.96 billion cubic meters, which accounted for 17.7 percent of the country’s total water consumption.

China’s water-use efficiency in steel and petrochemical industries has reached the international advanced level though the per capita water resource share in the country is only a quarter of the global average. However, that in some other industries is still seeing room for improvement due to certain reasons such as the backwardness in key technologies and equipment.

With the rapid development of industry, the varieties of industrial products are more diverse and the components of industrial wastewater becoming more complex. Apart from nitrogen, phosphorus and suspended matter, more poisonous and hazardous substances that are difficult to handle have been found in industrial wastewater, such as heavy metal and oil contamination.

Achieving efficient and cyclic utilization of industrial wastewater is key to promoting green development and balancing the supply and demand of water consumption.

After years of efforts, China has made positive progress in the cyclic utilization of industrial wastewater and has seen remarkable results in industrial water conservation.

The discharge of industrial wastewater in the country dropped to 1.34 million tons in 2019 from 2.37 million tons in 2010, a reduction of around 44 percent.

Among industrial enterprises above designated size, or those with annual main business revenue of 20 million yuan (about $2.95 million) or more, the recycling rate of industrial water went up from 89 percent in 2015 to 92.9 percent in 2021, and water consumption per 10,000 yuan of industrial added value in 2020 dropped 39.6 percent compared with 2015.

The recycling rate of industrial water of enterprises above designated size in steel and petrochemical industries stands at 97 percent and 95.2 percent, respectively.

Between 2016 and 2020, key medium- and large-sized iron and steel manufacturers in China reduced wastewater discharge by about 300 million cubic meters and saved 2.1 billion cubic meters of water consumption.

Internal recycling and treatment is the major way of cyclic utilization of industrial wastewater. To tackle the difficulties in the whole process of cyclic utilization, collaborative research in innovations of relevant technologies and equipment are proved to be effective solutions.

An enterprise in Zibo, east China’s Shandong province has launched cooperation with a university to develop technologies that recycle and treat wastewater generated by water jet looms. The enterprise has not only optimized the recycling and treatment of industrial and domestic sewage, but also succeeded in biochemically degrading the sewage, which helps tackle pollution in a targeted manner.

As a result, the recycling rate of industrial water of the enterprise was improved by 6 percent, which saves an annual water cost of 2 million yuan.

Many enterprises are actively exploiting big data, cloud computing and other new-generation information technologies to improve digital management and internet-based collaboration in wastewater recycling and treatment.

In Luzhou, southwest China’s Sichuan province, a chemical enterprise, by installing a monitoring system that covers production links including the reuse of reclaimed water, sewage treatment and circulating water, has basically realized automatic program control.

A big screen in a control room shows whether the industrial wastewater is discharged up to the standard and whether production equipment is running safely. The system can alert users to potential equipment dangers in time, and monitor the cyclic utilization of industrial wastewater in real-time.

In north China’s Tianjin municipality, a steel mill has replaced regular water sources with treated local municipal sewage and reclaimed water from sewage treatment works in nearby towns. The steel mill now achieves zero discharge of wastewater and zero exploitation of groundwater.

Some industrial parks in Beijing have also accelerated their steps of sewage utilization, providing high-quality treated water for production.

“In 2020, the utilization rate of reclaimed water in all Chinese cities stood at around 24 percent. The utilization of urban wastewater treatment is unsatisfactory, which could be further expanded for industrial use,” said Yang Benxiao, senior engineer with the China Electronic Product Reliability and Environmental Testing Research Institute, also known as the Fifth Electronic Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Yang believes that increasing the use of urban reclaimed water will remain a key direction for industrial enterprises and parks in cyclic utilization of wastewater.

A plan on cyclic utilization of industrial wastewater jointly released by the MIIT and other departments at the end of 2021 noted that by 2025, the utilization rate of industrial water of enterprises above designated size should reach 94 percent, and their water consumption per 10,000 yuan of industrial added value should decrease 16 percent compared to 2020, which is expected to build a new paradigm of efficient cyclic utilization in major water-consuming industries.

By Han Xin, People’s Daily

Carbon fibers, dubbed “black gold material,” are of high tensile strength, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance. They can be applied in a wide range of fields such as aerospace, energy equipment, transportation, and sports equipment.

They turn wind turbines and new energy vehicles lighter, carrier rockets more energy-efficient, and fishing poles and rackets more durable. As a matter of fact, carbon fibers are now seen in almost every industry and are seeping into every household.

Carbon fibers are divided into small-tow and large-tow categories. A bundle of more than 48,000 carbon fibers would fall under the large-tow category.

Small-tow carbon fibers are of high performance, which nonetheless involve high costs. Large-tow ones, on the contrary, are much more cheaper but still maintain reliability. Hence, they enjoy wider application in the market.

Recently, China’s first 10,000-ton large-tow carbon fiber project was put into use in the carbon fiber industrial base of Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co. Ltd.

The products are on par with similar overseas items in functionality. Every bundle has 48,000 carbon fibers, each of which is as thin as 1/7 to 1/8 of the diameter of hair but features strength seven to nine times that of steel. The carbon content is more than 95 percent.

This means China has made important breakthroughs in the production of large-tow carbon fibers and the domestic manufacturing of equipment.

As China’s high-tech industry develops, carbon fibers have embraced wider areas of application.

According to statistics, the country’s demand for the material surged rapidly in the past decade. China saw a demand of 62,000 tons for carbon fibers in 2021, up 27.7 percent year on year.

In addition to the growing demand in the aerospace industry, the new energy sector led by the wind turbine industry has become an important engine driving the development of carbon fibers, taking the carbon fiber industry to a new phase of development featuring industrial application.

Such demand will keep growing in the foreseeable future, given the constant equipment upgrading in the commercial aviation and unmanned aerial vehicle industries in China.

Thanks to the expanding market, the Chinese carbon fiber industry is seeing a better structure and delivering products that are of higher performance and lower cost.

Gangke carbon material company in north China’s Shanxi province is now capable of producing all major carbon fiber products, and leading Chinese carbon fiber manufacturer Zhongfu Shenying is also building a 30,000-ton carbon fiber plant.

For some time, China has constantly made new breakthroughs in the manufacturing and key technologies of carbon fibers and expanded relevant production capacity thanks to policy support and the efforts made by enterprises. The market share of domestically produced carbon fiber products climbed to 46.9 percent in 2021 from 31.7 percent in 2019.

China boasts a complete and independent industrial system and enjoys advantages as a super large market, which creates rich scenarios for the commercial application of carbon fibers. Its large R&D teams and emerging innovative market entities also provide solid support for the innovation of carbon fiber technologies.

Currently, there’s still big room for improvement in the performance and stability of China’s domestically made carbon fiber products, though the country’s carbon fiber industry has made great strides. The country is still relying on imported products when it comes to core carbon fiber equipment.

In the future, China will make more innovations in key technologies and make its carbon fiber production internationally competitive, so as to promote high-quality development of the carbon fiber industry.

A Civil society organization, Centre for Peace and Justice Initiative (CPJI) has charged the Nigeria military particularly the Nigeria Air force and other security outfits in the country to be decisive in dealing with security threats around the country.

The CSO while reacting to reports of a blast in Doma community, at the border between Benue and Nasarawa States that led to the killing of about 30 persons also urged Nigerians to refrain from accusing the military of complacency anytime there is a breach in security operations.

According to the group, available intelligence shows that there are clandestine plots to cause crises around the country with the aim of thwarting the 2023 general elections. Consequently, it is expected that security agencies must be decisive in quelling such threats.

Recall that there have been allegations and counter allegations of what transpired. But, addressing a press conference in Abuja, the CSO Executive Director, Bilikisu Hassan explained that while it was regrettable that innocent persons allegedly lost their lives in the incident care must be taking in throwing tantrums.

“We are compelled to make intervention on this issue because of the complexities that it presents. Overtime, many Nigerians have made it a point of responsibility to attack security agencies anytime there is a report of security infringement. Some have trivialise security issues to a point of playing politics anytime an opportunity presents itself.

“As stakeholders in the sector, we feel obliged to correct the negative impression been peddled by enemies of our dear nation. Those who peddle such falsehood against security agencies or twists facts to cause chaos for ulterior motives must not be allowed to succeed.

“Intelligence available clearly points that suspected armed herdsmen were seriously mobilizing their members from Awe, Doma and Keana LGAs of Nasarawa State and reportedly moving enmass down to places like Ungwan Yaara, Railway and Antsa Village all of Kwara District Area, Keana LGA allegedly planning to launch coordinated attacks on settlements in Benue State.

“The available information has it that the said attack is aimed at distorting electoral activities in Benue, hence a reprisal on Benue communities and security personnel ostensibly because of the 31st December 2022 bombing of their (armed herdsmen’s) camp at the border between Guma (Benue) and Doma (Nasarawa) LGAs by the Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS). This planned attack portends a great security threat to both the Tiv communities in Nasarawa state and indeed the entire Benue State”, Hassan alleged.

The group stated that, as a result of protracted criminality by bandits in the north central zone and particularly along the Nassarawa and Benue borders, President Buhari had earlier approved a military operation code named, Operation Cat race. The Nigerian Army also launched another operation named, Operation whirlstroke which is still in full force in the zone to flush out criminal elements, banditry, farmers herders attacks, cattle rustling and criminal gangs responsible for killings and insecurity in the zone. It insisted that the military has been tracking criminal activities in the zone for long.

By Li Xinping, People’s Daily

China has maintained the world’s largest handler of express delivery parcels for nine consecutive years, collecting and delivering a total of 110.58 billion parcels last year, up 2.1 percent from 2021.

In other words, on average, nearly 80 parcels were collected from and shipped to each Chinese in 2022.

In 2022, the express delivery sector’s revenue increased 2.3 percent from a year ago to reach 1.06 trillion yuan ($156.26 billion), with a capability to manage as many as 700 million parcels on a daily basis.

The sector reported outstanding performance in the rural market. As of the end of 2022, a total of 430,000 express service stations had been set up across the country, including 990 county-level delivery centers and 278,000 village-level courier stations.

Last year, the courier industry vigorously promoted integrated development of passenger, cargo, and mail transportation. Nearly 20,000 delivery vehicles were put into use in the rural market, and 1,888 routes opened to traffic to support passenger and mail transportation.

As of the end of 2022, 95 percent of all administrative villages across the country had been connected to express delivery services.

Xiangshi is a township located nearly 20 kilometers away from downtown Neijiang city, southwest China’s Sichuan province. It administers three communities and 11 administrative villages.

As a mountainous and sparsely populated township, Xiangshi was once express delivery-isolated. Besides, the emerging online car-hailing services brought fierce competition to the township’s traditional passenger transportation business.

To connect the township to courier services and tackle the challenges faced by the traditional passenger transportation business, local authorities came up with an idea of having the transportation and postal sectors share their personnel and equipment with each other.

“My van is multipurpose now. It carries both parcels and passengers. I can send 6,300 pieces of express delivery parcels every month with the van,” said Li Jun, a bus driver in Xiangshi township.

In 2022, around 100 million parcels were shipped to and from rural areas across China on a daily basis. Such remarkable performance couldn’t have been achieved without using intelligent systems and upgrading automation devices, which improved sorting efficiency.

At a rural express delivery service center owned by Cainiao Network, the logistics arm of China’s Alibaba Group, in Yuncheng county, Heze, east China’s Shandong province, there is an automatic sorting system that comes with 242 exits. It is able to sort tens of thousands of parcels shipped by different courier companies based on their shipping addresses.

According to Zhang Tongchun, who’s in charge of the service center, it takes only four hours for the automatic sorting system to sort 50,000 pieces of express delivery parcels, which is 1.5 times faster than before.

In addition, Cainiao Network has equipped its village-level stations with intelligent devices to further improve efficiency.

Zheng Chen, who heads a Cainiao service station in Chenlukou village in Yuncheng county, told People’s Daily that he would paste a smart light bar to each parcel that enters the station, which will beep and be lighted up when the QR code on the parcel is scanned. It only takes six to seven seconds for customers to find their parcels, Zheng said.

Stable express delivery service stations are the most important guarantee for the sale of farm products on e-commerce platforms.

Yongji, Yuncheng of Shanxi province, is one of the largest grape producers in north China. However, troubled by high logistics cost, many village-level express delivery service stations in the city had left.

To tackle the problem, postal authorities of Yuncheng decided last year to optimize the operational structure of the local courier business by handing over all village-level deliveries to one courier company, aiming to lower the cost of express delivery service stations and help stabilize the courier business in the city.

According to Wang Lei, head of the Yongji branch of ZTO Express that won the bid to run village-level courier business, courier stations have been set up in 195 administrative villages of Yongji only seven months after the decision was implemented.

Last year, the number of express parcels collected by courier stations of ZTO Express in Yongji surged by 40 percent. More and more local specialties in the city have been sold to the rest of the country, and their prices have also been lifted.

As of the end of 2022, 117 “gold medal” courier projects had been implemented to better assist the development of modern agriculture.