FG Inaugurates Erosion Control, Road Improvement Projects
The Federal Government has inaugurated an integrated solid waste management facility, as well as a gully erosion control and road improvement projects in phases one and five of Kurudu District, Abuja Municipal Area Council.
According to the government, the recently inaugurated projects were among the 11 ecological interventions approved by President Muhammadu Buhari for the fourth quarter of 2017 and the second quarter of 2018.
In his address at the inauguration ceremony in the Federal Capital Territory, the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, said the projects would help address all forms of flooding and gully erosion in the district and would improve the environmental hygiene and wellbeing of the community and its environs.
He said the projects, which were executed through the Ecological Fund Office, Abuja, were testimonies of the present administration’s promise that no part of the country would suffer neglect as a result of its geographical location or political consideration.
Shittu said he was optimistic that the projects would reduce the dangers associated with flooding experienced in the community in the past.
“In this critical moment of our nation building and economic recovery, these projects will definitely provide a window of opportunity for economic growth in this community,” the minister stated.
He added, “I will like to implore the community to cherish this project by preventing indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the drainage channels. It is the responsibility of the community to own and maintain the project to ensure its sustainability.”
The Permanent Secretary, Ecological Fund Office, Habiba Lawal, had earlier stated in her welcome address that the two projects were initiated through requests of an urgent intervention forwarded to the EFO by the chairman of AMAC and the Army Post Housing Residents Association.
According to her, the affected residents called for the intervention of the EFO in order to address the continous erosion, improve their access road, as well as remove the eyesore caused by heaps of solid waste that cause environmental pollution.
Lawal said, “The timely completion of these projects were made possible through the efforts of the project contractor and consultant who worked tirelessly to ensure minimum loss of time in the project implementation schedule and complemented with the very close monitoring and prompt honouring of all contractual obligation by the EFO.”
She also urged the community to take over the projects and ensure their sustainability, in order to avoid wasting the resources which the Federal Government committed to them.
Source: Punch
