Managing Director, National Inland Waterways Authority, George Moghalu, says NIWA has no resources to do massive capital dredging on waterways to prevent flooding.
He stated this Thursday while fielding questions from State House reporters after a private meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said NIWA had been using available resources to do maintenance dredging and carry out sensitisation programmes to alert citizens of flood-prone areas.
He said the agency’s priority target was ensuring that the nation’s waterways were kept in navigable conditions all year round in such a way whereby vessels can move around the country.
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He said last year’s flooding was a great concern to NIWA.
“So, what we started doing proactively was first of all to start aspects of sensitization.”
He said the Onitsha River Port in Anambra State would soon be hosting big cargoes.
He said discussions were ongoing for the concession of Baro port; while the Oguta and Lokoja ports were under construction to reduce pressure from the government.
