Calabar, – The Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) says 14 states are currently benefiting from about N12billion World Bank scheme to curtail the spread of gully erosion.
Mr Salisu Dahiru, National Project Coordinator, NEWMAP, said this on Tuesday in Calabar at the opening of a five-day workshop for Non-Governmental Organisations, Communication and Livelihood Officers.
The workshop was organised by the Federal Ministry of Environment in conjunction with the World Bank and other partners in the implementation of Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP).
Dahiru said that 21 badly affected gully erosion sites have been identified in the country and they are currently being addressed through the project.
He listed the states to include: Cross River, Abia, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia, Enugu, Anambra, Edo, Gombe, Kogi, Kano, Delta, Oyo and Sokoto.
According to him, Cross River alone has five gully erosion sites which are the highest.
“500 million Dollars had been earmarked to tackle the 21 gully erosion sites out of which 480 million has been devoted for remediation of the gully sites.
“At the initial stage, NEWMAP had targeted to work with seven states but the Federal Government recently approved seven more states where gully erosion had also reached alarming stage.
“The entire budget of 500 million dollars was meant to address erosion projects across the country, and all of these funds are going to be disbursed to the states,’’ he said.
He noted that findings had shown that the vast cases of land degradation that had developed into full blown gully erosion sites were caused by human activities through the wrong dumping of waste products and felling of tress.
“The entire country is overwhelmed with thousands of gully erosion sites.
“This is because in the last 20 or 30 years, we have not had the opportunity of addressing this problem and that is what NEWMAP is addressing,’’ he said.
According to him, infrastructure and the livelihood of the communities living around the affected areas, particularly in the south eastern part, are being threatened by gully erosion.
“Attempts have been made to address these problems and it involves huge amount of money.
“The government of Nigeria had to approach the World Bank for support to arrest the issues,’’ he said. (NAN)