CRSG satisfied with World Bank intervention projects
By; VITALIS UGOH, Calabar.
Cross River Government has expressed satisfaction with the level of ongoing intervention by the World Bank assisted Nigeria Erosion and watershed Management project-NEWMAP in the state.
The Deputy Governor, Prof. Ivara Esu made this assertion when he received the World Bank Supervision Team in his office.
He said that the present Government is passionate about land degradation and its associated negative effect on the environment and had shown a lot of commitment in this direction.
Esu, inferred that the intervention works has not only lifted the people out of hopelessness and poverty, but has also stabilized the affected erosion sites in the state; adding that Government is fully committed to driving the processes and will do all in its power to further attract such interventions in critical erosion areas.
He called on the world Bank team to consider and intensify its activities at Ikot Nkebre and Nyanga Chang axis of the erosion sites and suggested back-filing and asphalting of the roads which have already been eroded and washed away, claiming houses and rendering some areas inaccessible.
He pledged government’s willingness and commitment to ensure prompt payment of its counterpart funding for project execution in the state.
Earlier, the leader of the World Bank Supervision Team, Dr. Amas Abu, informed that the visit was to enable the team have a first–hand knowledge of the projects and to ascertain the degree of compliance of implementation processes and its conformity to World Bank standard.
Abu intimated that Cross River is rated high among the leading states in World Bank projects and commended the government.