Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi believe that the pace at which NEWMAP reducing vulnerability to ravaging gully erosion in the south –east “is bringing back lost hopes to those living in the shadows of the gullies” this therefore deserves commendation he said. Stakeholders from participating MDAs could not hide their approvals looking at the impressive achievements recorded by NEWMAP within the past 4 years and in between the last MTR of January 2016 and December 2017: Advanced Civil works across 21 initial sites are at 85% completion stages, with over 600 hectares of land recovered. N352, 236,806 disbursed to beneficiaries on livelihood enhancement activities across the first 7 States.
In the same vein, 1,264 Project Affected Persons fully compensated with N865, 079,252.69, compared to 984 in the 4th Quarter 2016. Flagging off the Projects’ 2nd MTR at the NIKE Lake Hotel Dr. Ugwuanyi advised that while there was the need to review the progress made and evaluate compliance with fiduciary/Safeguard aspects and overall implementation risks, the project should not forget area of sustainability
The representative of the Hon. Minister of state Environment, who is also the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Shehu Ahmed says NEWMAP has made remarkable progress with 85% completion of civil works in first mover states. He expressed the Hon. Minister acknowledgement of the project milestones in areas of climate change through the distribution of over 4,000 fuel efficient cook stoves to households and institutions, reduced tree falling, the installed hydrological and meteorological stations across 2 pilot River Basin Authorities and users trained on use of the systems, data being generated; and Extensive community mobilization and sensitization on erosion control in all NEWMAP states.
