Erosion control to gulp over N35billion

With over 1,100 recorded erosion sites out of which 580 is active, it will require more than 35billion Naira to tackle about 100 quantified and designed flood/erosion sites in Anambra State, in the South-East region of Nigeria.

This was the submission of the State Governor, Peter Obi, on Tuesday in Abuja at the opening of Nigeria’s First Eco Fair, tagged Eco Fair 2010 jointly organized by the National Committee on Ecological Problems (NCEP) and the Ecological Fund Office.

Obi said the State which was declared an Erosion disaster area since 2008 by the Federal Government due to erosions induced by flooding and anthropogenic factors is yet to benefit from the dialoguing with the Federal Government for over 5 years on, as the problem escalates by the day.

The Governor while presenting his paper, Ecological Issues in the South East Nigeria- Anambra State’s Experience, lamented the situation whereby “FGN award erosion contracts without informing the State or requesting for State input, especially on sites that are more critical.

He said the state’s inadequate financial resources have also led to poor monitoring and enforcement of best practices to reduce erosion menace. Noting that, “Surprisingly, at the National Assembly, there is no Bill on Erosion Control Commission, but Bill on Desertification Control Commission; and Bill on Climate Change Commission.”

He therefore called for the Establishment of a Flood/Erosion Control Commission at the federal level to coordinate and supervise state activities with regard to Flood/Erosion containment and building capacity of states with respect to establishing early warning systems.

He also appealed to the Federal Government and International Partner Agencies to come to the rescue of Anambra State “before the land space disappears.”

On his part, the Chairman, National Committee on Ecological Problems and Minister of Environment, John Odey blamed the attitude of contractors hired to remediate some of the ecological problems in the country.

Odey said “Some of these contractors implement jobs below standard even in collusion with some government officials thereby compounding our problems. We cannot allow this to continue. The Federal Government has resolved to henceforth properly monitor the performances of contractors engaged to handle ecological problems in order to stamp out poor- job performances.”

In addition, the Minister explained that the “Federal Government is aware of the enormity of the environmental challenges facing the country. This is what informed the dedication of some percentage of the Federation Account as Derivation and Ecology Fund, which is statutorily shared as special intervention thud among the three tiers of government, to address the ecological problems.”

However, he noted that despite considerable resources government has deployed to mitigate ecological problems nationwide in recent years, “these problems however remain unabated.”

The Chairman Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Grace Bent, while lauding the timeliness of the Eco-Fair stressed that “Global Warming and the impact of Climate Change have further aggravated our ecological problems and will continue to do so. We do not have much time left to remediate our endangered environment. The time to act is now.”

Bent said the Senate Committee has made spirited efforts to work with the Executive Arm and the Organized Civil Society to put in place effective budgetary, procurement, project implementation and evaluation mechanism to ensure greater success and positive impact of ecological projects in the country in other to maximize achievement of intended results for the people and environment.

Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary, Ecological Fund Office, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote in her remarks, said the participation of the various States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, as major stakeholders in the Eco-Fair was a “re-assurance of the preparedness on the part of major players in the polity to uphold the spirit of Co-operative Federalism in finding lasting solutions to the problems facing us as a Nation.”

One of the highpoints of the opening ceremony was the launching/presentation of the EFO Magazine- ECO Issues.