Govt, Residents Laud Return Of Erosion Management Project To Cross River

Residents of Cross River were elated on Friday with the return of the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) to the state.

 

Before NEWMAP ended its assignment in 2022, it reclaimed some communities extensively devastated by gully erosion.

 

Mr Anda Yalak, National Project Coordinator of NEWMAP-EIB, said during a visit to the Governor, Bassey Otu, that the project team was in the state to assess the state’s readiness to access the European Investment Bank (EIB) funds for erosion sites.

 

Yalak said, based on the state’s presentation on how it had managed its environmental challenges, it had become clearer to him that the state was fully ready for the resumption of the project.

 

“I want to assure the governor and the people that Cross River has met 100 per cent condition to attract the funding from EIB and the project would be coming with its normal practical solution and interventions.

 

“We have had meetings with EIB on how to request for the fund and it had assured us that from the date the request gets to them it will take 15 days for it to be disbursed,” he noted.

 

He,however, appealed to the governor to increase the state’s counterpart funds for the project, which would go along way in solving the problem of compensations before the work begins.

 

On his part, Otu who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Mr Peter , used the opportunity to thank the World Bank for funding the first phase of the phase.

 

Otu said that many communities in the state were suffering from environmental degradation that only projects like NEWMAP-EIB could handle, he assured the team of the state’s readiness to increase the counterpart funding.

 

“Our new relationship with NEWMAP-EIB will be based on trust, transparency and efficiency; we will be open to you and you can come to Cross River anytime without notice to carry out inspection of the project.

 

“This is because we will ensure its implementation to the latter,” the governor said.

 

The NEWMAP-EIB team assessed the gully on Ekong Street in Calabar South Local Government.

 

It and also visited some of the gully erosion in Ikot Uduak, Ikot Effanga, Edim Otop, Goodluck Jonathan By-pass, Mechanic Village by Skanobo, among others.

 

Some of the elated residents who spoke on the team’s visit said the gullies, some of which were about 50 feet deep, have crippled socioeconomic activities in the communities.

 

The team would also visit Ogoja in the northern part of the state to see gully sites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NAN/Oyenike Oyeniyi