Edo State commences phase II of N9b erosion control project

As part of its moves to stem the menace of erosion in Edo State, government has embarked on the reclamation of the Auchi , Queen Ede and Ekenwa sites, which will gulp N9billion.

The contract are as follows; Auchi, N5.7billion, Queen Ede N2.7billion and Ekenwa is about N360million. Besides, not less than 108 gully erosion sites pervades the length and breadth of Edo State as government last week said it has commenced the second phase of its remediation project in ten sites in the three senatorial districts of the state.

State Commissioner for Environment and Utilities, Prince Clem Agba, at an interactive session between officials of the World Bank, the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) and representatives of the affected communities in Benin City, said the second phase of the gully erosion remediation included designs that have started in ten sites of “Ewu, Emu, Ibore all in Edo Central.

According to Agba, there are Fugar and Igbe quarters in Edo North and in Edo South, while attention is on Ogiso and Osunde quarters, Edo College, Capiona catchment and Urhora.

“Those are the ten sites that we currently doing design. Hopefully we believe that with the competent team that we have now, our designs will be found bankable by the World Bank and also by Food and Agricultural Organization”.

The Commissioner said efforts by the Governor Adams Oshiomhole led administration to reclaim the erosion sites, started about four five years ago at the peak of flood and erosion in the state.

During the course of going through our inventory we discovered that we have about 108 active gully erosion sites in Edo state. And looking at the resources to deal with these sites it runs into trillions of naira.

“We started looking for ways and means of dealing with the issue, that was when the governor meet with the late President Musa Yar’Adua to seek for assistance and it was agreed that Edo State should be part of NEWMAP.

As a result, there is about six hundred and fifty million dollars available to NEWMAP,to all the participating states, but our own understanding is that it is on the “first come first serve basis”, said Agba, adding that based on the above reality, officials embarked on studies and doing the designs, which the World bank approved. This covers Auchi, Queen Ede gully erosion and the Ekenwa erosion sites.