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The Edo State government has announced that it has paid N800 million in counterpart funding to the European Investment Bank to tackle erosion and flooding in the state, particularly in Benin City.
The State Commissioner for Environment and Sustainability, Nosa Adams, announced this during the State Ministry of Information and Strategy’s bi-monthly press briefing in Benin City.
He explained that the project is a continuation of the Benin Storm Water Project initiated by former Governor Adams Oshiomhole but discontinued by the immediate past administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki.
Recall that former Governor Oshiomhole had, in 2012, announced the N30 billion Benin Storm Water Project to address perennial flooding and erosion in Benin City.
The administration commenced the project with the construction of a 13-foot-deep channel on New Lagos Road to link the canal at Five Junction to the canal at the Traditional Ground in order to control erosion in the city.
The project was, however, discontinued by the Obaseki administration, which described it as a fraud.
However, Adams, while addressing journalists on the state government’s plans to tackle erosion, said that within the next two months, all the paperwork would be completed and work would commence on the storm water project.
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“And as a follow-up, you know, the major problem we are facing in this very particular period is flooding and erosion control. And we have some notorious spots. But His Excellency has also followed up with the European Union Investment Bank, and has paid the counterpart funding, which, of course, Edo State is one of the states that have promptly paid the counterpart funding sources as to continue the Benin Storm Water Project, which was thwarted by the last administration.
“And now that we have paid our counterpart funding, in the next two months or so, the second phase and, of course, the last phase of the comprehensive storm project of Benin metropolis will have commenced. And we intend to link it up with Tomline, Siluko Road, and Ekewan Road. I can assure you that flooding and erosion problems will be a thing of the past in those areas,” he said.
The commissioner, who announced that Benin City generates 4,000 tonnes of waste daily, disclosed that his ministry had served abatement notices on 93 environmental offenders, adding that 30 of the offenders had been prosecuted.
He also disclosed that the state government had trained and inaugurated 100 environmental officers, who have been deployed across the 18 local government areas of the state to enforce environmental laws. He further announced that the state had attracted three environmental laboratories to be built in Benin, Auchi and Irrua.
Adams further told journalists that the efforts of his ministry had led to the resolution of the disagreement between Oregbemi Community and Coca-Cola Company over the company’s discharge of effluents into the Ikpoba River, adding that the effort resulted in Coca-Cola establishing a N1.8 billion effluent control plant.
Also speaking, Prince Kassim Afegbua, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, who moderated the press briefing, said the state government plans to carry out a massive reclamation of the Government Reservation Area, with drainage works to channel floodwater into the Ogba River.
