Committee Seeks More Allocation To Enugu Ecological Fund

The Chairman, Enugu State House of Assembly Committee on Environment, Mr Donatus Uzogbado, has called for increased allocation to the ecological fund.

Uzogbado made the call on Monday at Amagunze in Nkanu East Local Government Area of the state in continuation of the committees’ audit of erosion sites in the area.

He said the call was in a bid to check the erosion menace threatening communities in the state.

“We want to compile a compendium, a data bank for environmental degradation that the federal government will look at; that the international community will look at and see that Enugu State is involved too because if you go to the Internet, what you will see is Agulu-Nanka. “Nothing really for Enugu State and when ecological fund comes, it will be according to needs, he said.

The Committe chairman said “we want to say here we are; we want to say we are involved; we want to say we are in trouble; we want to say that our soil is being submerged; we want to say that erosion is consuming our houses.’’

He said that the committee had paid similar visits to 12 out of the 17 local government areas in the state with startling discoveries of life-threatening environmental degradations.

Responding, the Deputy Chairman of the council, Mr Chimezie Ani, commended the committee for embarking on the tour and gave the assurance that the local government would accord them the needed support for the success of the exercise.

On his part, the Deputy Chairman of Enugu North Local Government Area, Mr Richard Oji, said that contract had been awarded for the rehabilitation of Ilukwe-Obosi streets in Asata.

Erosion has eaten deep into the road thereby making it inaccessible for motorists.

Oji said that the project would be completed in the next three weeks and pleaded with residents of the area to exercise patience as the council was doing everything possible to alleviate their suffering.

He told the visiting lawmakers that the council had controlled the erosion threatening St Luke’s Primary School Ogui Nike, while the magnitude of the erosion site at No 22 Onoh crescent, GRA, was beyond the council’s financial capacity.

The lawmakers were taken to erosion sites at Ngwo and a house at Ward 12.