Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, after the inspection, the leader of the delegation, Lawal Mohammed, said the visit was to ascertain the level of damage already caused by erosion and to know how the Federal Government can intervene speedily to end the menace.
Mohammed, who is an Assistant Chief Civil Engineer at the Ecological Project Office, said the report will get to the appropriate authorities and assured of quick intervention from the Federal Government.
He said, “However, it is noteworthy that the Ecological Fund Office is an office under the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation headed by a Permanent Secretary. The Fund constitutes one per cent of the Federation Account and it is known as the Derivation and Ecology Fund.
“The prime objective of the initiative was to have a pool of funds that would be solely devoted to the funding of ecological projects to mitigate serious ecological problems.”
The team was conducted around the erosion sites by the state Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Felix Odimegwu, and members of the Anambra State Erosion, Watershed, and Climate Change Agency.
Odimegwu, while reacting, said Anambra State has the highest number of erosion sites in the country and called for urgent intervention of the Federal Government in order to save the roads, houses, farmlands, and industries that are threatened by the erosion.
He equally called on well-to-do Anambra citizens to join hands with the state government in restoring its lands from erosion even as he commended Governor Chukwuma Soludo for his quick interventions in some of the erosion sites in the state.
Some of the erosion sites visited were, Royal Estate Ububa Village behind the College of Nursing, Nkpor, Oba gully erosion site, Nza Ozubulu-Ekwusigo-Umudike Ukpor, Ukpor-Nnewi road, Awo-Ezimuzor Ezinifite, Nnewi South, Ogbedi Amichi gully erosion site, among others.
