NAN-AE-3
NEWMAP
By Emmanuel Acha
Enugu, Oct. 6, 2016 (NAN) The Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) in Enugu State, has been stalled for non-payment of counterpart funds by the state government.
The Communication Specialist to the project, Mr Benedict Agbo, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday that the state government owed more than N500 million in arrears.
Agbo said that since the inception of the project in the state four years ago, the state government had only paid an initial N60 million meant for the development of the designs for two gully erosion sites.
The sites included the Ajali Water Works and 9th Mile Corner gully erosion sites
The official said that the state had the highest number of gully erosion sites, which were over 50, adding that five priority sites were chosen for the World Bank to work on.
“The state government is supposed to pay a counterpart fund for the eight years of the project life span, which is a total of N750 million. We are yet to receive their counterpart fund.
“The backlog is N506 million and we understand with government that times are hard but chances are that certain projects important to the life of the people should be given priority,” he said.
Agbo said that the last administration that attracted the project approved N150 million for NEWMAP but regretted that the money was not assessed at the time its tenure lapsed.
He said that the current administration had followed suit and even sent delegations to visit the priority sites in the state to assess the extent of work done.
“After the assessment it approved N506 million as the 2016 counterpart fund and the backlog of other years with a commitment that N53 million will be remitted for the project monthly.
“This was announced in June this year and we strongly believe that the state government is still making plans considering the economic challenges in the country.
“Every state government is finding it as a challenge. It is our hope that the governor will implement what has been approved,” he said.
Agbo said that the project which is counterpart-fund dependent was based on a tripartite arrangement involving the World Bank, Federal Government of Nigeria and participating state governments.
“The non release of funds is affecting the work so much because there are categories of activities that we do in NEWMAP and those activities are suffering.
“These activities are supposed to be done before we move into the actual gully civil work remediation in the field,” he said.
He said that the state was lagging behind in the project implementation, adding that some states had even paid more than required while others were angling to join.
“Currently we have 13 states that have bought into the project and are eager to pay their counterpart funds upfront.
“More states are eager to come in and the World Bank does not even look at us again due to the reluctance in the payment of our counterpart funds.
“Some sites are now been reapproved because two rainy seasons have gone since they got initial approval for intervention.
“The gullies have widened and there are a lot of variations in costs,” Agbo said.
Meanwhile, the Enugu State Commissioner for Environment, Chief Fidel Ayogu has said that the state government has not accessed any form of ecological funds for the devastating erosion sites.
Ayogu said that efforts to get the Federal Government to release such funds had not worked, adding that NEWMAP was currently working on some of the erosion sites in the state.
He said that the agency had discovered additional erosion sites in the state and that the state government was committed to working on them. (NAN)
EOA/AFA
Edited by Felix Ajide
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