7 January 2009
The present administration is committed to tackling erosion menace in the south east as the problem was retarding the implementation of the seven-point agenda in the region.
Alhaji Yahaya Bawuro, the Director, Erosion, Flood and Costal Zonal Management, in the Federal Ministry of Environment, said this yesterday while speaking in Abuja.
To effectively address the problem, Bawuro said that the technical committee set up by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan had been charged with the task of producing an action plan on how to combat the environmental hazard.
According to him, the committee of which he is the chairman has three months to submit its report to the vice president.
The director said that the committee was the outcome of the meeting the vice president had with the governors of the south eastern states.
He said that the governors had complained that the dangers and problems caused by gully erosion were beyond the capability of the affected state governments.
"As a result of the situation in the five states, the governors had requested for the Federal Government's assistance. Though there is erosion all over the country, the south east is most affected," he said.
He said that the committee would liaise with the state governments to fashion out a workable action plan that would ensure a lasting solution to the problem.
Bawuro said the states had decried the absence of a holistic approach and the non involvement of the state governments in past efforts to address the problem.
"In this regard, the committee will be liaising with the state governments and also involve them in the drawing up of the action plan," he said.
He further said that the committee would engage the services of reputable consultants to carry out hydrological and baseline studies of the south east region.
"The use of baseline studies is the only way the problem can be adequately tackled rather than the usual guess work.
"The technical committee has visited the south eastern states, interacted with the technical people on ground and have collected data," he said.
He urged communities with serious erosion problems to make such data available to the technical committee to ensure the collection of comprehensive data.
According to him, the Federal Government had executed two projects in popular Agulu Nanka erosion site in the Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra state.
Bawuro said the technical committee would also give urgent attention to the erosion site at Oko, the home of former Vice President Alex Ekwueme.
He noted that rehabilitating an erosion site was capital intensive and called for understanding by Nigerians and for them to appreciate the enormity of contending issues facing the government.
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