By Kelvin Obambon
The Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), Cross River State, has vowed that it would recover a tricycle donated to facilitate the implementation of its project in Edim Otop community in Calabar Municipality local government area.
This comes as NEWMAP prepares to return to its various project sites in the state after a temporary pause that followed World Bank’s withdrawal of funding of the project that aims to address gully erosion crisis and land degradation in some parts of Nigeria on a multi-dimensional scale.
Speaking to journalists in Calabar on preparations to resume project implementation, Prof. Emmanuel Eyo, the state Project Coordinator, NEWMAP, said there had been an issue in Edim Otop where tricycle purposed for facilitation of projects was taken away by a youth in the community.
Read Also: BREAKING: Court Of Appeal Affirms Ikenga Ugochinyere’s Election As House Of Reps Member
“Like you have been informed, the chairman of the community committee to oversee those sites, especially the extent of the work done at those sites, informed our team that at the end of that job they were given tricycle and waste dump. Those items were given mainly to enable the indigenes and the residents of that area to carry waste and refuse to the central dumping place, but to our greatest surprise, we noticed that one Endurance, who is working with Aqua Prime Water had to carry the tricycle and since then he had not returned it. But reliably we have been notified that the matter has been reported to the police. So the project will ensure that we follow up to ensure that that tricycle is returned to the site. It is a project property. It’s not a personal property,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Sir Don Ettah, the environmental safeguard officer of NEWMAP said they would return to sites as the dry season sets in, disclosing that NEWMAP will now be funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB).
“Like I said, it was because World Bank was pulling out and so as at 30th of June, 2022 they pulled out. We couldn’t continue with those jobs. Now that EIB has come in we are closing out those jobs. That’s why we went for the inspection today, on the spot assessment with the contractor and the consultant to see what has been done and what needs to be done. What we expect now from the contractor is for them to give us their work programme within a short time frame. The NEWMAP work is basically dry season work because it’s an erosion work. We already into the dry season so we want them to close out those jobs so we can start new sites,” he said.
