Governor Charles Soludo, on Wednesday, described Anambra State the erosion capital of Nigeria.
The governor spoke while fielding questions from journalists after a closed door meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
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He said other than security, the environment remained the number one existential threat to the state as 30% to 40% of its land was under threat of erosion.
According to him, “Our landmass is shrinking massively due to erosion and so on, it is far beyond the capacity of a state government to deal with. Even if you were to sink the entire budget of the state into dealing with the gully erosion in the state, for the next ten years, it will still be like a drop in the ocean.”
Soludo expressed the willingness of the state government to partner with the federal government and the development partners to deal with the issue of erosion which he called “a state of emergency”.
He added that was equally promoting the concept of responsible citizenship on the part of people to be able to take “some responsible steps.”
Asked what his administration is doing to tackle major ecological problem like erosion and landslide, he said, “There is no other state like Anambra, when it comes to erosion. Even last week, somewhere between Ezinhifite/Osumenyin Road was cut off again and several … Huge gullies everywhere; Obosi, Oko, Nanka, Aguolo, everywhere, there’s erosion menace.
“We are providing some regulations; people controlling the runoff water from their homes, they do not just pipe them and get them off on the streets. Of course, they must go somewhere, contain it within you your place. Building controls; it will designate drain versus buildable areas, and so on and so forth.
“Then of course, trying to tackle these things with early warning signals, and we’ll begin to tackle them. Clean up our drainages and make sure we channel runoff waters down to rivers and so on and so forth and not let them percolate on the road or try to go to unwanted places and so on and so forth.
“We are doing quite a whole lot. There are a few of them that have become like where the roads have been cut off, for example. We have no choice but to try to do something, but ultimately, to deal with the kind of erosion of menace we have in Anambra will require quite very active, massive resource injection by the federal government.”
