Yemi Adedeji, Abuja
The Presidency says it has about 1.1 trillion request data on ecological problems specifically for soil erosion and flood control presently despite the dearth of funds to tackle the problems.
Habiba Lawal, Permanent Secretary, Ecological Fund Office (EFO), disclosed this Thursday in Abuja during an interactive session with journalists with a view to enriching and fine-tunning the EFO strategies for achieving more holistic, effective, sustainable and community based ecological problem amelioration and intervention.
She also revealed that there are about 2,890 critical ecological concerns across the country, with meager fund to tackle them.
The Permanent Secretary stressed that while the Federal Government continues to judiciously deploy its share of ecological fund to problems across the country, it is hoped that states and local government would demonstrately apply their own shares rather than relying on the Federal Government to address those problems.
She emphasised that if the entire problem were left to the Federal Government alone, much less impact would ensue overall due to the extent and severity of the ecological problems across the country.
“Presently, we have 1.1 trillion request data specifically for soil erosion and flood control. That does not include drought, desertification and coastal zone management, nor does it include pollution control.
“But I can I tell you the largest chunk of our work is soil erosion and soil control. Of all the 88 projects that are ongoing, almost 90 percent of them are soil erosion and flood control.
“That is not to say that we don’t have issue with flood control but because of the National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW) and they are actually doing something similar to that, so we stopped. We are just seeking approval now which has been endorsed that we can also continue the work on desertification and drought.” She said
Lawal diusclosed that the EFO office was directed by President Muhammadu Buhari to carry out a comprehensive national survey of ecological zones, variations, scope and severity of sites across the country.
She said that the survey updated the federal government data bank in all parts of the country, and was aimed at providing the government with a holistic, pragmatic and reliable source of information on ecological challenges in the country.
Lawal stated: “It would ensured an evidenced-based and strategic project selection and management process. About 2,890 sites were visited during the exercise, carried out in three phases from August to December , 2017.”
“Since the inception of thus administration in May 2015, 88 projects were awarded, 45 have been completed and 43 are still on-going. About 90% are on soil erosion because of the prevalence.”
“Our greatest challenge is the dearth of funds. The country is faced with a lot of ecological issues with meager funds to tackle them. Regrettably, what we notice that while one is being solved another one is being created. The total available fund is between is N12 billion and N15 billion per quarter. If you have a request of 1 trillion, do you have fund?
Speaking on the public hearing held on Wednesday at the National Assembly on the Bill to establish the ecological fund, she said; “the public hearing is that, under the past regimes they feel that some of the ecological fund was not utilised for the ecological interventions. Some were utilised for other developmental projects of the country and they feel in order to ensure that ecological funds are restricted to ecological interventions, they sought to put a bill.
“As far as we in the Ecological Fund Office are concerned, since 2015 till date, no funds have been set aside for anything other than the ecological intervention. If you read the news all the stories going there is in 2009, 2010, 2013. In this administration no approval has been granted out of the ecological fund to use the fund for non ecological issue.