Sam Kaye
The world bank is to spend about $30m to assist Borno state fix myriad of environmental problems associated with climate change.
The 30 million dollars has been earmarked for the Borno State Agro Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid landscapes (ACRESAL) project aimed at battling desertification due to climate change.
The grant which is to be spread across six years for various projects to counter erosion and other forms of challenges in the savanna is to attract a counterpart funding of N500m from the Borno State government.
This was revealed by the coordinator of the project in the State Ayuba Peter while addressing newsmen in his office in maiduguri over the weekend.
Ayuba said that the project will be of immense benefit to Borno residents because they reside within the sahel savanna region which is the worse hit from gradual desert encroachment, one of the haul marks of climate change.
The coordinator told newsmen in his office in maiduguri that the world bank support implementation team led by Dr joy Agene was in maiduguri to fast track the execution process of some already marked sites like Ngamdu which has been on the drawing board since the era of the Nigerian Erosion and Watershed management projects (NEWMAP) for transformation.
“We benefitted about two years of the NEWMAP project and they had to fold up which is why ACRESAL inherited the projects and had to bring them to the front burner for speedy execution.
” The project actually started in July 2022, to address some of the challenges we faced in the north of Nigeria when it comes to climate changes. And that is why there is need for agro climatic resilience which is why the World Bank will be helping us to get to our targets hopefully. ”
Speaking on stakeholders of the project at federal and state levels, the coordinator went on: “The project involves the ministry of Environment of each of the 19 northern states and the federal capital territory (FCT) and our Commissioner of Environment Eng. Emat Kois is the chair of the state steering committee. The Commissioners of Agriculture and water resources are co-chairs of the project. “
Responding to the current uneven spread of the project due to security reasons, the Coordinator said that for now projects being executed can be found in Bayo especially in Briyel, Uba and Ngamdu in Kaga council areas respectively”.
He posited that security concerns in certain areas marked out, has been a major challenge which is why other desirable areas have not been considered for implemention for now.
“projects inherited from NEWMAP are flow and erosion control in Ngamdu, which was not implemented because the timing was not favorable to the completion before the period expired.
Another additional cause of delay was the fact that pending projects were added to assist the benefitting community grow further by benefitting from flood water for instance instead of fleeing away from the commodity in an arid region.
Ayuba confirmed that Borno Governor Babagana Zulum has released the first batch of counterpart funding totalling N100m which qualifies the state to move into the second stage of the loan scheme.
“We believe his excellency the Governor is highly committed to the project as such the release of the next counterpart funding of N400m will not be an. Issue.” he concluded.
Meanwhile, Borno Governor Professor Babagana Zulum has visited the Ngamdu erosion site which he says is critical to his people.
He paid a hurried visit to the community in Kaga council area over the weekend to see things for himself and compare notes with the consultants over grey areas that have been stalling the project.
While there, he said that over 500 residents in Ngamdu were used to being displaced during the peak of the rainy season due to flooding adding that whatever dykes that are to be built should be constructed to save the people from these annual torrents which threaten the lives of the residents.
Most residents of that particular area of Ngamdu used to relocate like nomads when the floods cover their homes to the roof tops and return when it is over.
