Cross River State Government Set To Mitigate Coastal Degradation

Eme Offiong, Calabar

The Cross River State Government in partnership with the World Bank and Nigeria’s Ministry of Environment has concluded plans to tackle challenges mitigating economic development of communities along the nation’s coastal.

The Commissioner for the Ministry of International Development Cooperation, MIDC, Dr. Inyang Asibong told newsmen in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, south-south Nigeria that a team of environmental experts from the World Bank visited some coastal communities and important establishment for a pre-feasibility study of the coastline.

According to Dr. Asibong, the team under the aegis of West Africa Coastal Area (WACA) Management Programme Implementation in Nigeria visited riverine communities in Calabar South and Calabar Municipality.

She said that some notable establishments the team also visited included the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, the Tinapa Resort community, the Calabar Export Processing Zone and the popular Henshaw Town Beach Market.

On the aim of the tour of coastline communities, the Commissioner said, “the World Bank project is working with the Ministry of Environment to tackle the problems of communities in coastal areas.

“The team is going around Nigeria’s coastline with a view to assessing the needs of the communities living and doing business in those area. The focus here is how we can collectively improve the peoples economy and enable states generate revenue from coastline activities. The project visited the ports, that is, the Nigerian Ports Authority and other communities including our beach market, the Henshaw Town beach market. The essence is to ascertain the interventions needed for the ease of doing business. The project is considering dredging the Calabar Channel to enable fishing trawlers and bigger ships have easy access to the coastline for increased businesses in riverine dependent communities and by extension, the state’s revenue base and Nigeria’s as a whole,” said Asibong.
Protecting livelihoods

The WACA team lead, Mr. Joseph Akpokodje said the aim of the tour was to identify degraded areas with a view to proffer implementable and strategic interventions to mitigate coastal erosion and preserve livelihoods.

Akpokodje said that WACA was “strengthening the capacity of 17 West Africa countries to reduce the vulnerability of the coastal areas and promote climate-resilient integrated management.

“The WACA programme provides technical advice and investment to protect coastal livelihoods, prevent pollution and develop coastal infrastructure like breakwaters, sand barriers and mangroves restoration to support Nigeria’s multi- sectorial investment plan for the coastal zone to mobilize financing,” he said.

He disclosed that in Nigeria, three States, Cross River and Delta in south-south as well as Lagos in south-west regions were selected for the pilot implementation of the project.

On the state government’s team was the Permanent secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Dr. Aye Henshaw alongside other stakeholders in the shipping and environmental control sectors.

The team later paid a courtesy call on the deputy governor, Professor Ivara Esu, who pledged the State Government’s commitment to the project.