Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State has commended President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the World Bank in their efforts towards the control of erosions menace in the South East zone.
The Governor made the commendation through his deputy, Rev. Raphael Ifeanyichukwu Nwoye in an address during a state launch of the Nigeria Erosion and watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) at Michael Okpala Square in Enugu.
Governor Chime said that all efforts made by the State and Local government area as well as constituencies to control gully erosion, before now, were at best partially or temporarily effective for reasons that included improper road designs, inadequate drainage
systems and poor solid waste management in Urban and semi-Urban areas.
Others, he said, are destructive and unsustainable land use practices that remove protective vegetation cover, over grazing, deforestation, cultivation of marginal lands and uncontrolled mining for building materials and climate change challenges.
The Governor regretted that the menace of gully erosion has led to damage of infrastructural project such as several roads, highways, reservoirs and pipeline networks as well as natural assets like productive farm and forest.
Noting that Enugu State has the greatest number of erosion sites in Nigeria while Anambra state has the worst erosion sites, he however expressed confidence that NEWMAP and World Bank would help state in tackling the erosion menace as was done in China, Brazil and Israel.
Earlier in his address the Project coordinator NEWMAP Enugu, Engineer Simeon Nwankwo expressed delight that as one of the south Eastern states of Nigeria on whose erosion challenges brought about the birth of NEWMAP, Enugu state under Governor Chime had embraced the project promptly.
Engr. Nwankwo said that Enugu State has fulfilled the first conditions given by the World Bank for the state to participate by paying the required initial counterpart fund of N60,000,000 (sixty million Naira) in 2013.
He said that the Governor also approved the sum of (N200,000,000) Two hundred million Naira this year as further contribution to the counterpart requirements and assured the people of Enugu State that he would not disappoint them.
In his remark, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria Africa Region Marie Francoise Marie Nelly represented by Dr Amos Abu thanked Governor Chime for making the take off of the project possible.