The N19 billion Anti-erosion Funding

IT came as cheering news when the Minister of Environment, Mrs Laurentia Mallam, announced the Federal Government’s N19 billion funding for the control of erosion under the Nigerian Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP).
The programme is aimed at attacking the ugly menace of gully erosion in 21 sites across seven states, some of which include Anambra, Imo, Ebonyi and Cross River. Coming shortly after a similar gesture, in which the federal government also set aside the sum of N16 billion for the creation of the Great Green Wall Sahara project, Nigeria appears to be getting a little more serious in engaging its daunting environmental challenges which assail the coast, desert fringes and the heartland.
In the north, the Sahara Desert is claiming vast amounts of territories as a result of unhealthy environmental practices, such as indiscriminate wood felling, bush burning and unwillingness by the people to plant trees. In the coast, the Atlantic, following global warming, has increased in volume and taken over many communities while sweeping away low-lying coastal lands. In the hinterland, especially the South Eastern areas, gully erosion has taken away huge parcels of land, making it difficult for people to farm. In all instances, this environmental monster has sent many communities packing without a place to call their ancestral homelands.
Even though the federal government has, for decades, provided huge sums of money in its annual budget for states to deploy against environmental degradation, little was achieved because of massive corruption. This time, the federal government is working together with the World Bank to source a loan totaling more than 500 million dollars to map out an eight-plan of action to tackle erosion, especially in the South East. Happily, most states involved in the project have paid their counterpart funds.
According to the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly, it will be an integrated project, with the federal and state governments working closely with the affected local communities to meliorate the erosion sites and deploy environmental management techniques to forestall its spread in other areas.
It is high time we mobilised the youth as agents of environmental reclamation and management. The large number of unemployed youth can be formed into volunteer corps, taught such skills as tree and flower planting and deployed to manage the environment. Environmental awareness and management skills are necessary if we are to keep erosion and deforestation in check long after the fund has been spent.
The people must be involved in salvaging their own land and managing their environments by being equipped with the basic skills. The era of leaving the spending of funds meant for the environment in the hands of politicians and their contractor collaborators must end.