From Obinna Odogwu, Awka
Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has commended the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) for its interventions on erosion issues in Nigeria, particularly in his state.
Soludo said that NEWMAP has executed its projects diligently in the state and through their interventions, brought relief to some of the communities ravaged by erosions.
The governor spoke at the opening session of the NEWMAP’s Additional Financing (AF) Implementation Completion and Result Report Mission (ICRM) held in Awka, the state capital. The project is funded by the World Bank.
Represented by his deputy, Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, the governor described Anambra as the erosion capital of Africa but said that his administration would devote more time and resources to tackle the menace, even as preventive measures would also be adopted.
“I want to recognize that NEWMAP’s interventions continue to support government’s development agenda and vision for environmental sustainability, providing a platform for addressing the greatest existential threat to humanity”, he said.
At the three-day workshop which drew participants from 22 other states of the federation with NEWMAP interventions, the governor said as phase one of the NEWMAP project comes to an end, Anambra was prepared for the second phase.
“As NEWMAP-1 interventions across the 23 states, including Anambra, is gradually coming to an end, I encourage you to thoroughly review all the activities carried out, share ideas, document lessons learned, share a drink or two and enjoy the signature hospitality that Anambra is known for.
“While at it, do not forget to chart a clear pathway for the sustainability of the achievements recorded because the adverse impacts of climate change are more present now than ever before.
“In Anambra, we are ready for NEWMAP-2 because we have created institutions and templates for erosion and climate change interventions, based on international best practices.
“We have trained personnel and created enabling policies to attract the much needed funding and technical assistance to support these urgent needs. This is all aimed at creating sustainability for the great work of the past 10 years. I know the other 22 states have done the same and are ready too,” Soludo stated.
Commissioner for Environment in the state, Felix Odimegwu, an engineer, lamented the growing rate of erosion menace in the state, saying that over 70 percent of land mass is reportedly at the risk of gully erosion.
Odimegwu said: “Anambra today is faced with an existential threat from the scourge of erosion; we are the state with the second highest population density in Nigeria and alongside that, we have the most active number of erosion sites.
“It’s being reported that circa 70% of the land in Anambra State is at risk of gully erosion. This is the precarious state we are in, with less than 3% of our erosion menace under control, we not only ask for more, but wish to charge NEWMAP and her funding partners to declare a state of emergency on Anambra’s erosion menace.
“As government, we’re prepared to do things differently this time around to forestall this scourge. Erosion is a man-made activity that weakens soil aggregation and makes the soil susceptible to runoff velocity.
“The previous attempt at managing erosion has largely focused on post erosion management whereby remedies in the form of engineering work only take place after the erosion has occurred, destroying scarce land, properties or even life.
“This time, we must devote more time to pre-erosion management by nipping it in the bud before it occurs. We’ll work with researchers in various institutions of learning to identify key erosion sites and obtain the erosivity and erodibility index of every location.”
Project coordinator of NEWMAP in Anambra, Mr Michael Ivenso, while commending the World Bank, said that the aim of the mission was to appraise the results and achievements of the project in the past eight years of its implementation in view of its closure in June 2022.
World Bank’s Practice Manager, Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy (West and Central Africa), Sanjay Srivastava, commended the Federal Government for the good job it has done so far which had led to the saving of many lives and properties.
“We are starting the World Bank program called agro-climatic resilience in semi-arid landscapes (ACRESAL) project targeted at saving and preserving the landscape and extending the hand of partnership to the Nigerian government”, Srivastava said.
Earlier, there was a roundtable with the taskforce team of the NEWMAP at Bon Hotel, Awka. At the event, the governor was represented by his deputy, Ibezim, who disclosed that the state had paid its counterpart fund to the tune of N700 million.